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HOTO    8Y    PACH    BHOS.      NE 


LYMAN    ABBOTT,   u  d    i  h  d 

Editor-in-Chief  of  "The  Outlook    ' 

/ 


REV.  LYMAN    ABBOTT 


//    i>   o 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

RIVERSIDE 


GIFT  OF 

Mrs.    Helen  Ranney 


^ooks  bp  Ipman  9lijfaott,  ^.  D. 


THE    LIFE    AND    LITERATURE   OF    THE   AN- 
CIENT HEBREWS.     Crown  8vo,  $2.00. 

THE  EVOLUTION  OF  CHRISTIANITY.     i6mo, 
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CJe  Hife  anti  JLiterature  of  tfje 
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LY^IA^  ABBOTT 


BOSTON    AND   NEW   YORK 

HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  AND   COMPANY 

<Sibt  Ritoecsibe  l^rejf;?,  <JEambnb0e 

1901 


A  ^  :S 


COPYRIGHT,    I9OI,   BY   LVMAN  ABBOTT 
ALL   RIGHTS    RESERVED 


PEEFACE 

It  is  less  than  half  a  century  since  the  publica- 
tion of  "  Essays  and  Reviews  "  startled  the  ortho- 
dox  party    in    England    and    brought    upon    its 
authors   a   storm  of   criticism.     Of  those  Essays 
perhaps   none  was   more  severely  criticised   than 
that  of  Dr.  Frederick  Temple,  now  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  on  "  The  Education  of  the  World,"  in 
which  he  affirmed  that  Rome,  Greece,  Asia,  and 
Judea  each  contributed  something  to  the  growth 
of  the  future  church ;  Rome,  law  ;  Greece,  science 
and  art ;  Asia,  the  spiritual  imagination  ;  Judea, 
the  discipline  of  the  human  conscience  ;  in  which 
also  he  traced  in  the  Bible  a  development  of  re- 
ligious teaching,  from  an  earlier  and  cruder  to  a 
later  and  better  spiritual  conception  of  truth  and 
C  .  life.     Some  of  his  statements  he  would  probably 
•M     himself   now  modify ;    but  the  two  fundamental 
O     principles   of  his  essay,  that   God's  processes   of 
^     education  have  not  been  confined  to  the  Hebrew 
H     race,  and  that  in  the  Hebrew  race  they  were  grad- 
ual, the  affirmation  of  which  aroused  such  fierce 
^    antagonism  in  1860,  are  accepted  as  axiomatic  by 

C      a  large  and  increasing  body  of  Biblical  scholars  in 

C 

OS 


IV  PREFACE 

1900.  This  school  of  Biblical  interpretation  may 
be  termed  modern,  because  it  has  come  into  exist- 
ence in  England  and  America  during  the  present 
century ;  it  may  be  termed  scientific,  because  in 
the  study  of  the  Bible  it  assumes  nothing  respect- 
ing the  origin,  character,  and  authority  of  the  Bible, 
but  expects  to  determine  by  such  study  what  are 
its  origin,  character,  and  authority ;  it  may  be 
termed  literary,  because  it  applies  to  the  study 
of  Hebrew  literature  the  same  canons  of  literary 
criticism  which  are  applied  by  students  of  other 
world-literature ;  it  may  be  termed  evolutionary, 
because  it  assumes  that  the  laws,  institutions,  and 
literature  of  the  ancient  Hebrews  were  a  gradual 
development  in  the  life  of  the  nation,  not  an  in- 
stantaneous creation  nor  a  series  of  instantaneous 
creations.  The  other  school  may  be  termed  the 
ancient  school,  because  it  prevailed  in  the  church 
from  a  very  ancient  period  until  the  latter  half 
of  the  nineteenth  century  ;  the  theological  school, 
because  it  assumes  as  settled  that  the  Bible  is  a 
revelation  from  God  and  consequently  possesses 
certain  characteristics  which  it  thinks  such  a  reve- 
lation must  be  assumed  to  possess  ;  the  traditional 
school,  because  it  accepts  as  presumptively,  if  not 
conclusively  true,  certain  opinions  respecting  the 
date,  authorship,  and  character  of  different  books 
in  the  Bible  which  have  been  traditionally  held  in 
the  church  from  a  very  early  period. 


PREFACE  V 

I  accept  frankly,  fully,  and  without  reserve  the 
first  of  these  schools,  and  have  written  this  book 
for  a  double  purpose :  first,  to  tell  the  general 
reader  what  is  the  spirit  and  what  the  methods 
and  the  general  conclusions  of  this  school  respect- 
ing the  Bible ;  and  second,  to  show  that  these  do 
not  imperil  spiritual  faith,  —  that,  on  the  contrary, 
they  enhance  the  value  of  the  Bible  as  an  instru- 
ment for  the  cultivation  of  the  spiritual  faith. 

What  will  the  New  Criticism  do  with  the  Bible, 
is  a  fair  question  to  ask,  and  the  time  has  come 
to  give  it  at  least  a  partial  answer.  The  believer 
in  the  New  Criticism  replies  that  it  has  already 
brought  back  into  the  Bible  some  books  which  had 
almost  dropped  out  of  it,  such  as  the  Song  of 
Songs,  Ecclesiastes,  and  Job  ;  that  it  has  relieved 
from  some  ethical  difficulties  some  other  books, 
such  as  Joshua  and  Leviticus ;  that  it  has  made 
credible  as  fiction  some  passages  which  had  been 
incredible  as  history,  such  as  the  legend  of  the 
Fall  and  the  satire  of  Jonah  ;  that  it  has  made 
practically  applicable  to  our  own  time  other  por- 
tions of  the  Bible,  such  as  the  civil  laws  contained 
in  Exodus  and  Deuteronomy ;  that  it  has  given  a 
new  and  deeper  spiritual  significance  to  still  other 
portions,  as  to  some  of  the  Psalms  and  to  the  latter 
half  of  the  Book  of  Isaiah.  The  end  is  not  yet ; 
but  enough  has  been  accomplished  to  satisfy  the 
believer  in  the  New  Criticism  that  its  effect  will 


VI  PREFACE 

be  to  destroy  that  faith  in  the  letter  which  killeth, 
and  to  promote  that  faith  in  the  spirit  which  mak- 
eth  alive  ;  to  lead  the  Christian  to  see  in  the  Bible 
a  means  for  the  development  of  faith  in  the  God 
of  the  Bible,  not  an  object  which  faith  may  accept 
in  lieu  of  God's  living  presence  ;  to  regard  the 
Bible,  not  as  a  book  of  philosophy  about  religion, 
but  as  a  book  of  religious  experiences,  the  more 
inspiring  to  the  religious  life  of  man  because 
frankly  recognized  as  a  book  simply,  naively,  di- 
vinely human. 

I  am  indebted.,  io  so  many  authors  of  whose 
original  investigations  I  have  made  free  use  that  I 
attempt  no  acknowledgment  to  them  here.  Recog- 
nition of  my  obligations  to  them  will  be  found  in 
the  notes  scattered  through  the  volume. 

It  should  be  added  that  in  the  preparation  of 
this  volume  I  have  followed  the  lines  and  used 
freely  the  material  employed  on  the  course  of  Sun- 
day evening  lectures  on  the  Old  Testament  given 
in  Plymouth  Church,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  in  the  win- 
ter of  1896-97,  and  the  subsequent  course  of  lec- 
tures given  before  the  Lowell  Institute  of  Boston 
on  the  same  theme,  in  the  winter  of  1899-1900 ; 
but  that  the  book  is  not  a  reproduction  of  either 

course. 

LYMAN  ABBOTT. 

COBNWALL-ON-THE-HUDSON,  N.  Y. 


CONTENTS 

OHAF.  PAOB 

I.  The  Bible  as  Literatubb 1 

n.  Hebrew  History 27 

ni.  Prehistoric  Traditions  rewritten      ...  52 

IV    The  Book  of  the  Covenant      ....  81 

V.  The  Deuteronomic  Code 116 

VI.  The  Canon  Law 129 

VII.  Hebrew  Fiction 164 

Vni.  Some  Hebrew  Stories  retold           .        .        .  177 

IX.  A  Drama  of  Love 201 

X.  A  Spiritual  Tragedy 229 

XI.  A  School  of  Ethical  Philosophy.    I.         .        .  263 

XII.  A  School  of  Ethical  Philosophy.    II.    .        .  287 

XIII.  A  Collection  of  Lyrics 305 

XIV.  Preachers  of  Righteousness     ....  328 
XV.  Preachers  of  Redemption 352 

XVI.  The  Message  of  Israel 372 


THE  WRITINGS    OF    THE    OLD   TESTAMENT 
IN  THE  ORDER  OF  THEIR  COMPOSITION 

WITH   AUTHORS   AND   APPROXIMATE   DATES 

In  case  a  book  is  ascribed  to  a  period  rather  than  a  year,  the 
date  of  the  terminus  ad  quern  determines  its  position  in  this  table. 
In  the  main  Driver's  Introduction  to  the  Literature  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament has  been  followed.  By  reference  to  the  chronological  table 
on  pages  xi.-sdii.  the  reader  may  see  under  what  circumstances 
the  yarious  writings  were  composed. 


Date,  b.  c. 

Weitinqs. 

AUTHOES  (OB  EDITOBS). 

1250 

"  Book  of  the  Covenant "  (virtually 
as  in  Exod.  xx.-xxiii.)  and  prob- 
ably other  traditional  portions  of 
the  Hexateuch. 

Mosea. 

1000 

Earlier  psalius,  probably. 

David  (?) 

940 

Earlier  proverbs,  probably. 

Solomon  (?) 

940-882 

Song  of  Songs,  though  by  some  con- 
sidered as  late  as  247-221,  in  the 
Greek  period. 

Anonymous. 

874-800 

Proverbs  x.-xiii.  16. 

"  Wise  Men." 

900-750 

(  Jehovistic  narrative  )  ^°e"Tentl°' 
/Elohistic  narrative    j  teuch 

"  J  "  (a  Judaic  writer). 
"E"   (an  Ephraimitic 

(Much  uncertainty  as  to  which  is 

writer). 

earlier.) 

760-746 

Amos. 

Amos. 

746-734 

Hosea. 

Hosea. 

740-701 

Isaiah  i.-xxxix. 

Isaiah. 

700 

I.  and  II.  Samuel,  though  in  part 
nearly    contemporary     with    the 
events  narrated. 

Anonymous. 

700  circa 

Ruth,  though  by  some  considered  as 
late  as  445. 

Anonymous. 

722-685 

Micah. 

Micah. 

690-610  circa 

Deuteronomy. 

Anonymous. 

626  circa 

Zephaniah. 

Zephaniah. 

667-604 

Nahum. 

Nahum. 

6C0  seq. 

Judges. 

Anonymous. 

608-597 

Habakkuk. 

Habakkuk. 

586 

I.  and  II.  Kings. 

Anonymous. 

586 

Jeremiah. 

Jeremiah. 

586 

Lamentations. 

Jeremiah  or  contempo- 
raries. 

586  teq. 

Obadiah,  though  possibly  later. 

Obadiah. 

600-570 

Code  of  Holiness  (Lev.  xvii.-xxvi.). 

"H." 

X       THE    WRITINGS   OF   THE    OLD    TESTAMENT 
The  Writings  of  the  Old  Testament  —  continued. 


Date,  b.  0. 

Writings. 

Authors  (or  Editobs). 

593-570 

Ezekiel. 

Ezekiel. 

549  circa 

Isaiah  xl.-lxri.  (Second  Isaiah). 

Unknown  prophet  or 
prophets. 

549  circa 

Job. 

Anonymous. 

593-537 

Many  psalms. 

Various     anonymous 
authors. 

570-530 

Priestly  narrative. 

"P." 

570-530 

Leviticus. 

"P." 

520-518 

I  Haggai. 

I  Zechariah  i.-viii. 

Haggai. 
Zechariah. 

464  circa 

"  Malachi "  (i.  e.  "  My  Messenger  "). 

Anonymous. 

431 

Pentateuch     virtually     completed. 
(Joshua  not  included  in  the  canon 
until  later.) 

Anonymous. 

410 

Joel.     (It  is  maintained  by  some, 
however,  that  Joel  is  as  early  as 
836.) 

Joel. 

333*63. 

I.  and  U.  Chronicles. 

A  Levite. 

ZSaseq. 

(  Ezra           1  based  on  authentic  me- 
\  Nehemiah  (      moirs. 

(  A    Levite,   perhaps 

(  "the  Chronicler." 

332  seq. 

Esther. 

Anonymous. 

332-306 

The  Book  of  Jonah. 

Anonymous. 

350-300 

Book  of  Proverbs  compiled. 

Anonymous. 

333-280 

Zechariah  Ix.-xiv. 

Anonymous. 

200 

Ecclesiastes,  —  though    possibly  m 
early  as  333. 

Pseudonymous. 

516-168 

Many   psalms.      The   Psalter  prac- 
tically as  at  present  compiled. 

Anonymous. 

168 

Daniel. 

Anonymous. 

165  seq. 

Probably  some  later  psalms,  during 

Various  anonymous 

the  Maccabean  period. 

authors. 

CHRONOLOGY  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


The  Chronolog'y  of  the  Old  Testament  is  to  a  certain  extent 
hypothetical ;  prior  to  the  Exodus  it  is  wholly  so.  In  preparing 
this  table,  use  has  been  made  of  The  Religion  of  Israel,  by  Karl 
Budde,  and  the  Commentaries  on  Isaiah  and  on  The  Twelve  Pro- 
phets, by  George  Adam  Smith.  The  latter  has  been  accepted  and 
followed  without  question  in  the  period  of  which  he  treats,  — 
that  is,  from  the  disruption  of  the  kingdom,  B.  c.  940. 


Dates 
B.  c. 

Pbophbtb. 

Events. 

3000) 
to    [ 
1250) 

Scene  of  Job  and 
Genesis  stories. 

>  Patriarchal  Age. 

1250 

Book  of  Covenant. 

Exodus  from   Egypt;    giving  of  the  law 
Sinai ;  foundation  of  Mosaiam. 

on  Mt. 

1000 

Earlier    Psalms 
written. 

David  becomes  king. 

9G0 

Wisdom  literature 
begins.    Scene  of 
Song    of     Songs 

Solomon. 

and  Ecclesiastes. 

Division  of  the  kingdom. 

JUDAH. 

Israel. 

940 

Rehoboam. 

Jeroboam  I. 

Establishment  of  calf 

worship 

in  Northern  Israel. 

923 

Abijam. 

920 

Asa. 

918 

Nadab. 

915 

Baasha. 

891 

Elah. 

888 

Zimri,  Omri. 

876 

Ahab. 

874 

Jehosaphat. 

854 

•  Elijah.              -j 

853 

Ahaziah,  son  of  Ahab. 

852 

I 

Joram    or    Jehoram, 

son    of 

849 

Jehoram,    son    of 
Jehosaphat. 

Ahab. 

844 
842 

Elisha. 

Ahaziah. 
Athaliah. 

836 

Joaah,    son     of 
Ahaziah. 

Jehu. 

814 

Jehoahaz. 

798 

Joash,  son  of  Jehoahaz 

Xll        CHRONOLOGY   OF   THE    OLD    TESTAMENT 
Chronology  of  the  Old  Testament — continued. 


EVKNTS. 

Datbs 

Prophets. 

B.  0. 

JUDAH. 

Israel. 

797 

Amaziab. 

783 

Jonah  (2  Kings  xiv 

Jeroboam  II. 

778 

25). 

Uzziah  (Azariah). 

775-) 
705    ) 

Jeroboam    reconquers    Moab, 

Gilead,  etc. 

7G3 

Total  eclipse  of  the  sun 

759-  ) 
745    ) 

Amos. 

(Amos  viii.  9). 

743 

f 

Zechariah,  Shallum,  Menahem. 

740 

fl 
Hosea.           { 

Death  of  King  Uz- 

■ 

ziah.  Jothamsole 
ruler. 

737 

i 

Pekahiah. 

736 

i 

Ahaz. 

735 

Pekah. 

730 

Hoshea. 

727 

■  Isaiah 
i.-xxxix. 

Hezekiah. 

725 
722   ) 

Siege  of  Samaria. 

or 

Fall  of  Samaria. 

721   ) 

Captivity  of  Israel. 

715 

Micah.- 

Samaria  colonized    by  Assyr- 
ians. 

701 

Invasion  of  Judah. 
Deliverance  of  Jerusalem. 

695 

690   \ 

Manasseh. 

685   ) 

676 

Manasseh  tributary  to  Assyria. 

641 

Amon. 

639 

Josiah. 

627 

Jeremiah  appears. 

626 

Zephaniah. 

621 

Book  of  the  law  (Deuteronomy)  discovered. 
Josiah's  reforms  begin. 
Passover  (2  Kings  xxii.,  xxiii.). 

620 

Habakkuk(?). 

608 

Necho  II.  defeats  and  slays  Josiah  at  Megiddo; 

Nahum  (?). 

Judah  Egyptian  vassal. 
f  Jehoahaz. 

602- ) 
600    ] 

J  Jehoiakim. 

'  Jeremiah. 

]  Judah  vassal  of  Babylon. 
[  Jehoiachin. 

597 

Temple  plundered  ;  Zedekiah  vassal  to  Babylon. 
First  Great  Exile  to  Babylon. 

593 

Ezekiel. 

Jewish  revolt  against  Babylon  ;  opposed  by  Jere- 
miah. 

587-) 
586    ) 

C 

b 

idiah  (?) 

i 

Jerusalem  taken  by  Nebuchadnezzar ;  Second  Great 
Exile  to  Babylon. 

CHRONOLOGY   OF   THE   OLD    TESTAMENT     Xlll 

Chronology  of  the  Old  Testament  —  continued. 


Dates 

Peophbts. 

Events. 

B.C. 

JUDAH. 

549 

537 

520 
516 

464 
458 
445 
444 

432 
431 
410 
350- ) 
345    \ 

332 
3J0 
306 
264 
260   ) 
160   ) 

The  "Second  Isa- 
iah," also  called 
the  "  Great  Un- 
known." (Isaiah 
xl.-livi.) 

( Haggai. 
I.  Zechariah    i.-  > 
(     viii.                 ) 
"  Malachi." 

JoeL 

(Zechariah  ix.-) 
(  Book  of  Jonah. ) 

Probable    close  of 
prophetic  canon. 

Release  assured  to  the  Jews  by  the  appearance  of 
Cyrus  against  Babylonia. 

The  Jews  return  to  Jerusalem  from  Babylon  under 

Zerubabbel  and  Joshua. 
Restoration  of  altar  and  sacrifice. 

Building  of  the  temple  by  Zerubabbel  and  Joshua. 
Completion  of  the  temple. 

Ezra  arrives  at  Jerusalem. 
Nehemiah  arrives  at  Jerusalem. 
Establishment  of  the  law. 
Rebuilding  of  walls. 
Nehemiah's  return  to  Jerusalem. 
Pentateuch  virtually  completed. 

Insurrection  in  Judah.      Much    bloodshed  there 

(Jos.  Ant.  B.  xi.  ch.  7,  §  1). 
Jews  subdued  by  Holofernes  (Book  of  Judith). 
Many  Jews  taken  to  Hyrcania. 

Ptolemy  takes  Jerusalem  (?). 

Egypt's  wars  for  Palestine. 

About  this  time  Greek  translation  of  the  Penta- 
teuch. 

LIFE   AND   LITERATURE   OF 
THE  ANCIENT  HEBREWS 


CHAPTER  I 

THE   BIBLE   AS   LITERATURE 

The  word  "  Scriptures "  means  writings ;  the 
word  "  Bible,"  a  transliteration  of  the  Greek  word 
"  Biblia,"  means  books.  In  both  cases  the  plural 
form  indicates  the  fact  that  from  the  earliest  ages 
the  Bible  has  been  recognized  to  be,  not  a  writing  or 
book,  but  a  collection  of  writings  or  books.  When 
the  singular  form  is  used  in  the  New  Testament,  the 
reference  is  generally,  if  not  always,  to  a  specific 
passage ;  when  the  writer  is  I'eferring  to  the  whole 
collection  of  the  Old  Testament,  he  uses  the  jDlural 
form.^  The  Bible  is  a  library  of  sixty-six  different 
books,  written  by  a  great  number  of  writers,  writ- 
ing for  the  most  part  without  cooperation.  These 
books    have    for    convenience'    sake   been    bound 

-'-  Illustrations  of  the  use  of  the  singular  to  denote  a  particular 
book  or  passage  are  afforded  by  Mark  xii.  10 ;  xv.  28 ;  John  vii. 
38 ;  X.  35  ;  Acts  viii.  32 ;  Rom.  iv.  3  ;  Gal.  iv.  30 ;  1  Tim.  v.  18. 
Illustrations  of  the  use  of  the  plural  to  indicate  all  the  books  of 
the  Old  Testament  are  afforded  by  Matt.  xxi.  42 ;  xxii.  29 ;  xxvi. 
54 ;  Luke  xxiv.  27 ;  John  v.  39 ;  Rom.  i.  2 ;  xv.  4. 


2      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF    THE   HEBREWS 

together,  but  for  careful  study  they  must  be  con- 
sidered separately.  This  is  not  equivalent  to  the 
declaration  that  there  is  no  other  unity  in  this 
book  than  the  mere  mechanical  unity  made  by  the 
binder's  art.  That  there  is  a  real  ethical  and 
spiritual  unity  will  appear  all  the  more  clearly 
from  a  study  of  them  as  separate  books  or  writ- 
ings ;  but  that  they  are  really,  not  merely  formally 
or  appai-ently,  independent  is  the  first  fact  which 
the  student  of  the  Bible  must  recognize.  There  is 
nothing  new  or  startling  in  this  assertion ;  it  has 
always  been  known  that  the  Bible  is  a  collection 
of  independent  writings  by  different  authors ;  but 
modern  criticism  is  at  once  using  this  fact  in  its 
study  of  the  Bible,  and  laying  emphasis  upon  it  as 
the  result  and  by  the  methods  of  its  study. 

Scientific  investigation  of  any  subject  may  be 
said  to  consist  of  the  two  correlative  processes  of 
analysis  and  synthesis.  By  the  first  the  object  is 
separated  into  its  several  parts ;  by  the  second  it 
is  put  together  again  into  an  organic  whole.  The 
Bible  has  always  been  subjected  to  these  processes  ; 
but  in  the  older  form  of  study  it  was  to  a  consider- 
able extent  regarded  as  one  book,  by  one  divine 
author,  though  divided  into  separate  books,  chap- 
ters, and  verses  for  convenience  of  study.  The 
analysis  then  consisted  in  this  separation  of  the 
one  book  into  separate  books,  chapters,  and  verses, 
and  was  a  mechanical  rather  than  a  literary  ana- 
lysis ;  the  synthesis  consisted  in  putting  these 
verses  together  in  new  relations  for  the  purpose 


THE   BIBLE   AS   LITERATURE  3 

of  constructing  a  system  of  theology  or  perhaps  of 
ethics.  In  this  synthetic  process  little  or  no  atten- 
tion was  paid  to  the  fact  that  the  Bible  is  a 
collection  of  books  written  by  different  authors,  at 
different  times,  under  different  circumstances,  for 
different  purposes,  and  possessing  different  degrees 
of  spiritual  development.  Sometimes  the  text  was 
wrested  from  its  context,  and  made  to  bear  a 
meaning  which  it  certainly  did  not  bear  in  the 
mind  of  the  original  writer,  as  in  the  common 
citation  of  the  verse,  "  As  a  tree  falls,  so  shall  it 
lie,"  cited  as  a  proof-text  against  the  possibility  of 
a  future  probation  ;  ^  sometimes  it  was  used  to  sup- 
port a  doctrine  the  opposite  of  that  intended  by 
the  author,  as  in  the  not  infrequent  citation  of 
the  text,  "  Touch  not,  taste  not,  handle  not,"  as 
authority  for  total  abstinence,  when  in  the  original 
it  is  quoted  by  Paul  from  ascetic  teachers  only  for 
the  purpose  of  condemning  it,  and  the  philosophy 
which  he  supposes  it  to  represent.^     Occasionally 

^  "  It  may  be  noted,  as  an  illustration  of  the  way  in  which  the 
after-thoughts  of  theology  have  worked  their  way  into  the  inter- 
pretation of  Scripture,  that  the  latter  clause  has  been  expounded 
as  meaning  that  the  state  in  which  men  chance  to  be  when  death 
comes  on  them  is  unalterable,  that  there  is  '  no  repentance  in  the 
grave.'  So  far  as  it  expresses  the  general  truth  that  our  efforts 
to  alter  the  character  of  others  for  the  better  must  cease  when  the 
man  dies,  that  when  the  tree  falls  to  south  or  north,  towards  the 
region  of  light  or  that  of  darkness,  we,  who  are  still  on  the  earth, 
cannot  prune,  or  dig  about,  or  dung  it  (Luke  xiii.  8),  the  inference 
may  be  legitimate  enough,  but  it  is  clear  that  it  is  not  that 
thought  which  was  prominent  in  the  mind  of  the  writer."  The 
Cambridge  Bible,  Ecclesiastes,  p.  200. 

2  Col.  ii.  21.  See  Alford's  Greek  Testament  and  T.  K.  Ab- 
bott's International  Critical  Commentary. 


4      LIFE   AND    LITERATURE    OF    THE   HEBREWS 

this  use  of  texts  regardless  of  their  authorship  and 
original  intent  led  to  amusing  results.  Many  years 
ago,  when  this  use  of  the  Bible  was  more  conmion 
than  it  is  now,  a  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
New  York  said  in  a  legal  decision,  "  We  have  the 
highest  possible  authority  for  saying  '  Skin  for 
skin,  yea,  all  that  a  man  hath  will  he  give  for  his 
life.'  "  The  next  morning  the  New  York  "  Herald  " 
commented  on  this  opinion  substantially  as  follows : 
"  We  find  that  it  was  the  devil  who  said,  '  Skin  for 
skin,  yea,  all  that  a  man  hath  will  he  give  for  his 
life : '  now  we  know  who  it  is  that  our  Supreme 
Court  Judges  regard  as  the  highest  j^ossible 
authority." 

But  this  textual  use  of  the  Bible  was  by  no 
means  confined  to  misuses  such  as  these.  One  has 
only  to  turn  to  any  theological  sermon  of  one  of 
the  older  New  England  divines,  such  as  Jonathan 
Edwards  or  Nathaniel  Emmons,  or  to  the  collection 
of  texts  accumulated  in  footnotes  in  support  of  the 
articles  of  the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith, 
or  in  such  a  Roman  Catholic  collection  as  "  The 
Divine  Armory  of  Holy  Scripture,"  to  see  that  in 
this  older  method  of  Bible  use  no  attempt  was 
made  to  consider  the  comparative  weight,  the  local 
meaning,  or  the  original  application  of  Scripture 
texts ;  all  were  treated  as  of  equal  value,  and 
applied  regardless  of  their  literary  significance  and 
human  authorship. ^ 

^  Thus  the  Divine  Armory  cites  as  authority  for  "  the  noble 
lineage,  immaculate    conception,  and    virginity "    of   the  Virgin 


THE  BIBLE   AS   LITERATURE  5 

And  such  use  of  Scrij^ture  was  measurably  justi- 
fied by  the  conception  wLieh  the  fathers  more  or 
less  consciously  entertained  concerning  the  Bible 
as  one  book,  whose  real  author  was  God,  though  it 
was  written  by  many  human  amanuenses.  In 
studying  the  statutes  of  a  State  we  do  not  inquire 
who  reported  them,  nor  even  what  legislator  pro- 
posed their  enactment ;  for  the  authority  of  the 
statute  is  in  the  legislature,  not  in  the  reporter 
nor  in  the  individual  legislator.  In  studying  the 
decisions  of  a  court,  all  we  care  to  know  about 
the  reporter  is  that  he  has  given  a  fairly  correct 
report  of  the  decision  ;  even  the  personality  of  the 
individual  judge  who  wrote  the  opinion  is  a  matter 
of  wholly  secondary  significance  ;  for  the  authority 
rests  in  the  court  whose  decision  is  announced,  not 
in  the  judge  who  announces  it  nor  in  the  reporter 
who  records  it.  Somewhat  similarly,  the  character 
and  circumstances  of  the  individual  writer  in  the 
Bible  v/ere  not  improperly  ignored  by  those  who 
held  that  he  was  only  an  amanuensis  or  rej^orter, 
or  at  least  quasi  private  secretary,  who  recorded, 
though  to  a  certain  extent  in  his  own  language,  the 
authoritative  and  inerrant,  if  not  absolutely  verbally 
dictated,  utterances  of  an  omniscient  God.  It  was 
even  sometimes  affirmed  that  we  can  only  think  in 

Mary,  the  verse  from  the  Song'  of  Soiig-s :  "Thou  art  all  fair,  O 
my  love,  and  there  is  no  spot  in  thee ; "  and  the  Westminster 
Confession  of  Faith  cites  in  support  of  the  doctrine  that  the  hopes 
of  the  unregenerate  are  illusory  and  vain  the  argument  of  Bil- 
dad  that  Job  must  have  been  a  great  sinner  or  his  prosperity 
would  not  have  come  to  naught  (Job  viii.  13,  14). 


6      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

language,  and  therefore,  if  the  thoughts  of  the 
writers  were  inspired,  the  words  must  have  been 
dictated.^  Those  who  entertained  this  conception 
of  the  Bible  paid  little  or  no  attention  to  the 
specific  character  of  the  different  writers  or  the 
different  writings.  No  account,  for  example,  was 
made  of  the  fact  that  the  Book  of  Job  is  largely  a 
hot  debate  between  disputants  who  take  absolutely 
antagonistic  views  of  the  same  problem  ;  their 
utterances  were  quoted  as  of  equal  authority.  A 
quotation  from  an  old  poem  affirming  that  the  sun 
and  moon  stood  still  to  prolong  the  victory  of 
Joshua  and  make  more  overwhelming  the  defeat 
of  his  enemies  was  regarded  as  scientifically  author- 

^  "  Calovius  was  the  author  of  the  theory  which  is  usually  de- 
nominated the  Orthodox  Protestant  theory.  According  to  him, 
inspiration  is  the  form  which  revelation  assumes,  and  nothing 
exists  in  the  Scriptures  which  was  not  divinely  suggested  and 
inspired  (divinitus  suggestum  et  inspiratum).  Quenstedt,  Baier, 
Hollaz,  and  others  followed,  affirming  that  the  writers  were  de- 
pendent upon  the  Spirit  for  their  very  words,  and  denying  that 
there  were  any  solecisms  in  the  New  Testament.  The  Baxtorfs 
extended  inspiration  to  the  vowel-points  of  the  Old  Testament. 
This  view  was  adopted  in  the  Formula  Cons.  Helv.,  and  Gisbert 
Voetius  extended  inspiration  to  the  very  punctuation.  This  doe- 
trine  was  an  absolute  novelty."  Religious  Encyclopedia,  SchafF- 
Herzog,  article  Insjnration.  Compare  also  article  on  Inspiration 
in  EncyclopcEdia  Britannica.  These  extreme  views  were  not,  how- 
ever, those  of  the  most  eminent  of  either  the  Roman  Catholic  or 
the  Protestant  divines ;  the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith 
implies  a  spiritual  rather  than  a  literalistic  doctrine  of  inspiration 
in  its  declaration  (chapter  i.,  §  5),  "our  full  persuasion  and  as- 
surance of  the  infallible  truth  and  divine  authority  thereof  is 
from  the  inward  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  bearing  witness  by  and 
with  the  word  in  our  hearts." 


THE   BIBLE   AS   LITERATURE  7 

itative,  to  be  reconciled  if  possible  with  the  postu- 
lates of  modern  science,  but,  whether  reconciled  or 
not,  to  be  accepted.^  Such  inconsistencies  in  the 
historical  narratives  as  the  statement  in  one  account 
of  the  Deluge  that  the  animals  went  by  twos  into 
the  ark,  and  in  another  that  some  of  them  went  by 
sevens,^  or  in  the  Book  of  Samuel  that  Jehovah 
moved  David  to  number  Israel,  and  in  the  Book  of 
Chronicles  that  Satan  tempted  him,^  it  was  thought 
necessary  to  harmonize  on  the  theory  that  both 
statements  proceeded  from  one  infallible  author 
and  were  recorded  by  infallible  penmen.     Inter- 

1  " '  The  Book  of  Jasher '  was  in  all  probability  a  collection, 
rhythmical  in  form  and  poetical  in  diction,  of  various  pieces 
celebrating  the  heroes  of  the  Hebrew  nation  and  their  achieve- 
ments." The  Cambridge  Bible,  Josh.  x.  13.  Compare  The  Bible 
Commentary  on  the  same.  Compare  also  the  Polychrome  Bible, 
Book  of  Joshua,  p.  72.  Of  this  passage  (Josh.  x.  12,  13)  it 
says :  "  The  quotation  is  poetic  and  figurative,  as  in  the  Song  of 
Deborah  (Judg.  v.  20),  the  stars  fought  against  Sisera ;  it  seems, 
however,  to  have  been  misunderstood  and  taken  literally  by  sub- 
sequent editors.  It  means  simply :  May  God  grant  us  victory 
before  the  sun  sets.  Similarly  Agamemnon  prays  to  Zeus  that  the 
sun  may  not  set  before  Priam's  dwelling  is  overthrown  (II.  2, 
413  ff.).  At  the  bidding  of  Athene  the  sunset  was  delayed  for 
the  sake  of  Ulysses  (Od.  23,  241  ff.),  and,  on  another  occasion, 
hastened  at  the  command  of  Hera,  in  order  to  save  the  Greeks 
(II.  18,  239  fF.).  Of  course,  if  there  were  an  adequate  motive  for 
a  miracle  here,  or  any  appreciable  evidence  that  a  miracle  took 
place,  scientific  objections  would  be  irrelevant,  because,  from  the 
very  idea  of  a  miracle,  its  physical  antecedents  and  mechanism 
are  unintelligible  and  cannot  be  discussed.  But  there  is  no  reason 
to  suppose  that  the  narrative  originally  stated  that  a  miracle 
happened." 

^  Compare  Gen.  vi.  20,  and  vii.  9,  with  Gen,  vii.  2,  3. 

^  2  Sam.  xxiv.  1 ;  1  Chron.  xxi.  1. 


8      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

pretations  of  history  found  in  tlie  Bible  which 
attributed  the  wholesale  massacre  of  the  Canaanite 
to  Jehovah's  direct  command,^  expressions  con- 
tained in  it  of  the  natural  feeling  of  the  persecuted 
exiles  crying  out  to  Jehovah  for  vengeance  on 
cruel  Babylon,^  it  was  deemed  necessary  to  make 
congruous  with  the  command  of  Christ,  "  But  I 
say  unto  you,  Love  your  enemies,"  since  both  were 
assumed  to  have  emanated  equally  directly  from 
the  same  divine  Author.^ 

The  modern  student  of  the  Bible  frankly  recog- 
nizes these  self-contradictions  in  the  Bible,  and  they 
do  not  trouble  him,  because  they  do  not  militate 

1  Josh.  viii.  2  ;  x.  40. 

^  Ps.  cxxxvii.  8,  9.  Stanley  in  his  History  of  the  Jewish  Church 
treats  of  the  apparent  contradiction  between  certain  teachings  in 
the  Old  Testament  and  others  in  the  New  Testament  thus : 
"  That  this  inferiority  of  the  Old  Dispensation  was  an  acknow- 
ledged element  in  the  '  gradualness  and  partialness '  of  Revela- 
tion, inevitably  flows  from  the  definition  of  Revelation  as  given 
by  the  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  '  God  who  in  sundry 
times  and  in  divers  manners  spake  in  times  past  to  our  fathers ' ' ' 
(p.  280),  and  refers  to  Chrysostora's  Homily  on  1  Cor.  ch.  xiii., 
where  he  says,  quoting  Ps.  cxxxix.  21,  22 :  "Now  because  he  has 
brought  us  to  a  more  entire  self-command  ...  he  bids  us  rather 
admit  and  soothe  them.  .  .  .  We  must  not  hate  but  pity."  This 
is  an  application  of  the  evolutionary  philosophy  long  before 
evolution  was  recognized  as  a  philosophy. 

^  Much  ingenuity  has  been  displayed  in  the  endeavor  to  recon- 
cile the  apparent  contradictions  in  the  Bible  between  different 
authors,  or  between  Biblical  authors  and  scientific  conclusions,  or 
the  moral  consensus  of  mankind.  Some  treatises  of  considerable 
ability  have  been  devoted  wholly  to  this  task.  See,  for  example, 
J.  W.  Haley's  An  Examination  of  the  Alleged  Discrepancies  of  the 
Bible  (1873),  and  Robert  Tuck's  A  Handbook  if  Biblical  Difficul- 
ties, 2  vols.  (1886). 


THE   BIBLE   AS   LITERATURE  9 

against  his  conception  of  the  inspiration  of  the 
writers  or  the  character  and  authority  of  their  writ- 
ings. The  differences  between  the  old  view  and  the 
new  view  are  radical  and  even  revolutionary,  and 
the  advocates  of  the  new  method  seem  to  me  mis- 
taken when,  to  guard  against  the  fears  of  the  timid, 
they  endeavor  to  minimize  the  differences  between 
the  new  and  the  old.  The  question  between  the 
two  is  not  merely  whether  there  are  some  errors  in 
the  science  or  history  of  the  Bible,  still  less  whether 
there  were  any  in  the  original  autographs,  long 
since  lost.  The  point  of  view,  the  methods  of  study, 
the  theological  assumptions  which  underlie  that 
study,  and  the  results  attained,  differ,  and  differ 
very  widely.  It  is  a  great  deal  better  to  recognize 
these  differences  frankly  than  to  attempt  to  conceal 
them  either  from  others  or  from  ourselves. 

By  the  modern  school  the  method  of  dividing  the 
Bible  into  a  series  of  texts,  treating  them  all  as  of 
equal  authority  and  weight,  because  equally  words 
of  God,  and  constructing  a  system  of  theology  by 
piecing  them  together,  is  not  only  abandoned  as 
antiquated ;  it  is  frankly  condemned  as  unscientific 
and  erroneous.  A  new  method  is  proposed  to  take 
its  place  ;  this  new  method  goes  by  the  infelicitous 
title  of  the  "  Higher  Criticism."  I  call  it  infelici- 
tous because,  while  to  scholars  its  meaning  is  per- 
fectly clear,  to  many  people  it  is  not,  for  the  simple 
reason  that  it  is  a  technical  term,  and  in  it  the 
words  are  used  in  a  technical  and  non-popular  sense. 
To  the  non-scientific  reader  criticism  of  anything 


10      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

signifies  judgment  of  it,  and  generally  such  judg- 
ment as  discovers  and  exhibits  its  imperfections ; 
to  such  the  phrase  "  higher  criticism  "  suggests  a 
superior  kind  of  judgment  of  the  Bible,  and  con- 
notes a  kind  of  spiritual  egotism  in  the  higher  critic. 
To  the  scientific  student  the  word  "  criticism " 
applied  to  the  Bible  means  "  inquiry  into  the  origin, 
history,  authenticity,  character,  etc.,  of  the  literary 
documents  "  ^  of  which  it  is  composed.  Lower  criti- 
cism means  such  inquiry  into  the  text  or  into  par- 
ticular texts,  and  is  equivalent  to  textual  criticism  ; 
higher  criticism  means  inquiry  into  the  documents 
as  a  whole,  their  integrity,  authenticity,  credibility, 
authorship,  circumstances  of  their  composition,  and 
the  like,  and  is  equivalent  to  literary  criticism.^ 
Applied  to  the  study  of  Shakespeare,  the  question, 
Is  the  disputed  line  to  be  read  "  To  the  manner 
born  "  or  "  To  the  manor  born  "  ?  would  belong  to 
lower  criticism ;  the  question,  how  largely  the  son- 
nets of  Shakespeare  are  really  autobiographical  in 
their  character,  how  largely  they  are  dramatic  im- 
personations of  sentiment,  would  belong  to  higher 

^  Century  Dictionarg. 

2  Higher  Criticism  is  sometimes  called  philosophical  study  of 
the  Bible.  "  It  is  named  the  Higher  Criticism  because  it  is  higher 
in  its  order  and  in  its  work  than  the  Lower  or  Textual  Criticism. 
This  department  of  criticism  has  lived  and  worked  under  this  name 
for  more  than  a  century.  .  .  .  The  Higher  Criticism  devotes  its 
attention  to  the  literary  features  of  the  Bible.  It  has  four  great 
questions  to  answer  :  As  to  the  integrity  of  the  writings  ;  as  to  the 
authenticity  of  the  writings  ;  as  to  literary  features ;  as  to  the 
credibility  of  the  writings."  C.  A.  Briggs,  D.  D.,  The  Study  of 
Holy  Scripture,  pp.  92  and  95. 


THE   BIBLE   AS   LITERATURE  11 

criticism.  It  would  be  a  mistake  to  suppose  that 
either  lower  criticism  or  higher  criticism  is  peculiar 
to  the  present  half-century;  there  have  always  been 
both  a  textual  and  a  literary  study  of  the  Bible, 
both  a  lower  and  a  higher  criticism  ;  but  in  our  time 
new  emphasis  has  been  attached  and  new  impor- 
tance given  to  the  literary  study,  or  higher  criti- 
cism. In  these  articles  I  shall  discard  technical 
expressions,  because  the  book  is  not  intended  pri- 
marily for  technical  students  ;  I  shall,  therefore, 
speak  of  the  literary  study,  rather  than  of  the 
higher  criticism,  of  the  Bible. 

Employing  a  new  method  in  its  study  of  the  Bible, 
the  new  school  approaches  this  study  with  a  differ- 
ent theological  assumption  from  that  of  the  old 
school.  The  difference  is  not  easily  defined ;  but 
it  is  all  the  more  important  because  it  is  rather  spir- 
itual than  philosophical,  and  therefore  transcends 
exact  definition.  The  old  theology  laid  emphasis 
on  what  is  called  the  transcendence  of  God ;  the 
new  theology  on  his  immanence.  The  old  theology 
regarded  God  as  apart  from  matter,  and  creating 
the  world  as  an  architect  or  builder  by  mechanical 
processes ;  as  apart  from  nature,  and  directing  it  as 
an  engineer  his  engine  ;  as  apart  from  humanity, 
and  ruling  over  his  subjects  as  a  king ;  as  apart 
from  man,  and  mysteriously  joined  to  him  in  the 
incarnation  of  tlie  God-man.  The  new  theology 
conceives  of  God  as  dwelling  in  matter,  shaping  it 
as  the  soul  shapes  the  body  ;  dwelling  in  nature, 
and  ruling  it  as  the  soul  rules  the  body ;  dwelling 


12      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

in  man,  and  controlling  him  less  by  law  and  power 
than  by  influence,  less  as  a  king  rules  his  subjects 
than  as  a  father  controls  his  loyal  son  ;  entering 
into  man  in  the  incarnation,  and  becoming  God 
manifest  in  the  flesh,  Christ  being  the  God-in-man 
rather  than  the  God-and-man.^  This  theological 
point  of  view  applied  to  the  Bible  changes  our  con- 
ception of  inspiration  and  revelation.  The  new  view 
believes  in  revelation,  but  conceives  it  less  as  a  dis- 
closing of  an  external  God  to  man  than  as  an  unveil- 
ing of  God  in  human  experience ;  it  believes  in 
inspiration,  but  it  conceives  of  inspiration  less  as  an 
addition  to  human  experience  of  something  super- 
human than  as  a  transfusion  of  human  experience 
by  a  Spirit  who  is  superhuman.  It  consequently 
regards  the  Bible,  not  so  much  an  addition  to  human 
knowledge  of  certain  truths  before  unknown  if 
not  unknowable,  as  the  record  of  a  spiritual  con- 
sciousness in  certain  souls,  which  is  possible,  in  vary- 
ing degree,  to  the  souls  of  all.  Taking  as  its  defini- 
tion of  religion  "  the  life  of  God  in  the  soul  of  man," 
it  regards  the  Bible  as  a  book  of  religion  rather  than 
as  a  book  about  religion  ;  that  is,  as  the  transcrip- 
tion of  the  experiences  of  men  who  were  conscious 
of  the  life  of  God  in  their  times,  their  nation,  and 
their  own  souls.  This  consciousness  of  God  in  them- 
selves constituted  their  inspiration  ;  and  in  this  con- 
sciousness of    God  in    their    own    souls    God  was 

^  For  an  excellent  outworkins;'  of  this  doctrine  of  the  cli^-ine  im- 
manence as  applied  to  all  branches  of  theology  see  The  Heligion  of 
To-morrow,  by  Frank  Crane. 


THE   BIBLE   AS   LITERATURE  13 

revealed  to  them.  Just  in  so  far  as  this  conscious- 
ness o£  God  awakens  a  corresponding  consciousness 
of  God  in  us,  is  it  a  revelation  of  God  to  us,  and  no 
further.  The  Bible  is,  therefore,  to  be  conceived, 
not  as  an  unnaturally  divine  book,  nor  as  a  book 
partly  divine  and  partly  human ;  it  is  a  divine-in- 
human book,  and  to  us  all  the  more  divine  because 
human.  Through  it  God  is  revealed  to  our  con- 
sciousness, because  in  it  God  is  seen  revealed  in  the 
consciousness  of  its  writers.  We  see  God  in  it,  not 
apart  from  human  consciousness,  but  in  human  con- 
sciousness, not  as  he  is  in  himself,  but  as  he  was 
seen,  felt,  realized,  by  holy  men.  As  the  supreme 
revelation  of  God  to  man  in  life  is  God  dwelling  in 
man  in  the  incarnation,  so  the  supreme  revelation 
of  God  to  man  in  literature  is  God  dwelling  in  the 
writers  of  the  books  which  constitute  the  literature. 
When,  therefore,  he  who  is  accustomed  to  the 
conception  of  an  infallible  and  inerrant  book  asks 
the  modern  student  how,  on  this  conception  of  the 
Bible  as  a  divine-in-human  book,  it  is  possible  to 
separate  the  divine  from  the  human,  and  tell  what  is 
divine  and  what  human,  the  answer  is  that  it  is  no 
more  possible  to  make  such  a  separation  in  the  Bible 
than  it  is  to  separate  the  divine  from  the  human  in 
Christ.  The  Bible  is  not  a  composite  of  divine  gold 
mixed  with  human  alloy,  which  we  must  somehow 
separate  from  the  alloy  in  order  to  get  a  standard 
degree  of  fineness.  It  is  rather  like  oxj'gen  mixed 
with  nitrogen  in  the  air  that  we  may  better  breathe 
it.    What  reader  can  tell  how  much  of  his  thinkine: 


14      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

is  inspired  by  Carlyle,  how  much  by  Robertson,  how 
much  by  Thackeray,  how  much  by  Browning  ?  The 
more  thoroughly  he  has  thought  over  what  he  has 
read,  and  the  more  he  has  made  that  thought  his 
own,  the  less  he  can  distinguish  the  sources  and  the 
inspiration  of  his  thinking.  So  the  closer  these 
holy  men  were  to  God,  the  less  possible  it  was  for 
them  to  tell  what  of  their  thoughts  were  divine  in 
source  and  what  were  their  own  ;  still  less  can  we 
make  such  a  discrimination.  Nor  is  it  desirable  to 
do  so.  What  we  need  is  not  merely  God,  but  God 
in  us ;  and  thei"e£ore  a  book  which  gives  us  a  record 
of  the  experiences  of  men  in  whom  God  dwelt  is  a 
more  valuable  book  to  conduct  us  to  God  than  a 
book  which  should  give  us,  were  such  a  book  possi- 
ble, a  representation  of  God  apart  from  men.  The 
fact  that  the  writers  were  men  of  like  passions  as 
we  ourselves  are,  that  they  saw  in  part  and  prophe- 
sied in  part,  and  saw  as  in  a  glass  darkly,^  makes 
them  the  better  interpreters  of  the  life  of  God  to  us, 
in  our  partialism  and  our  imperfection.  This  col- 
lection of  books  is  a  record  of  the  experiences  of 
men  who  had  in  larger  or  lesser  degree  the  con- 
sciousness of  God  dwelling  in  them.  It  is  a  record 
of  religious  experience,  and  that  is  a  record  of  the 
life  of  God  in  the  soul  of  man  ;  not  of  the  life  of 
God  only,  but  of  the  life  of  God  in  the  soul  of  man  ; 
and  the  man  in  whom  God  dwells  is  quite  as  essen- 
tial to  the  religious  revelation  as  the  God  who  dwells 
in  him,  because  religion  is  the  combination  of  the 
two,  God  and  man,  dwelling  together. 

1  1  Cor.  siii.  9,  12. 


THE   BIBLE   AS   LITERATURE  15 

It  does  not,  therefore,  disturb  us  in  the  least  to 
find  human  error  and  imperfection  in  the  collection. 
We  find,  and  we  should  expect  to  find,  writers  hold- 
ing the  scientific  opinions  of  their  times,  thinking 
the  world  was  flat ;  that  the  province  in  which  they 
lived  was  nearly  the  whole  of  it ;  that  the  Mediter- 
ranean was  the  "  Great  Sea  "  ;  that  the  stars  and 
sun  and  moon  revolved  around  the  earth  on  which 
they  lived,  and  were  made  simply  to  light  it.  We 
find  them  absolutely  ignorant  of  the  laws  of  nature  ; 
never,  therefore,  even  entertaining  the  question 
whether  laws  of  nature  were  violated  or  not,  but 
looking  at  all  phenomena  with  childlike  interest, 
as  little  children  look  at  such  phenomena  now. 
We  find  them  with  as  little  ability  to  exercise  criti- 
cal historical  judgment  as  to  exercise  scientific 
judgment,  accepting  without  criticism  the  legends 
that  come  down  to  them,  and  seeking  in  them  for 
some  vision  or  some  modification  of  their  vision  of 
God  in  his  world.  We  find  them  from  the  first 
believing  that  God  is  a  righteous  God,  and  de- 
mands righteousness  of  his  children  ;  but  in  the 
earlier  stages  not  knowing  what  righteousness  is, 
and  growing  to  a  broader  and  better  conception  of 
righteousness  as  the  race  grows  in  age  and  in  ex- 
perience. And  to  find  such  errors,  scientific,  his- 
torical, philosophic,  in  this  record  of  the  religious 
experience  of  a  race,  does  not  disturb  in  the  least 
our  faith  that  the  collection  contains  a  revelation 
of  God  in  man  and  to  man.^ 

^  See  chapter  ii.,  "  The  Evolution  of  the  Bible,"  in  my  Evolution 


16      LIFE  AND   LITERATURE   OF   TEE   HEBREWS 

With  this  radical  change  in  our  theological  con- 
ception comes  a  change  scarcely  less  radical  in  our 
process  of  analysis  and  synthesis.  We  study  the 
Bible  no  longer  by  texts  ;  we  analyze  it  no  longer 
into  texts ;  we  no  longer  even  print  it  in  texts,  or 
we  indicate  the  texts  by  numbers  in  the  margin,  as 
in  the  Revised  Version.  We  study  the  Bible  by 
books  and  by  authors ;  we  compare,  not  text  with 
text,  but  author  with  author.  We  endeavor  to 
ascertain  the  character  of  the  author,  his  tempera- 
ment, the  time  in  which  he  lived,  the  audience  to 
which  he  spoke,  the  immediate  purpose  which  ani- 
mated him.  Single  texts  are  no  longer  conclusive  ; 
they  are  valuable  just  in  the  measure  in  which  they 
are  an  interpretation  of  what  a  devout  soul  thought 
under  the  inspiration  of  God  about  the  truth  of 
God.  We  no  more  go  to  the  Bible  for  a  text  to 
settle  for  us  what  is  the  truth,  or  what  the  teach- 
ing of  the  Bible,  or  what  even  the  teaching  of  the 
individual  writer,  than  we  go  to  a  single  sentence 
in  a  speech  of  Daniel  Webster  to  settle  for  us  what 
is  his  teaching.  We  measure  Paul  by  entire  Epis- 
tles ;  the  Psalmist  by  an  entire  Psalm  ;  each  writer 
by  the  totality  of  his  writing.  In  brief,  we  apply 
to  this  collection  of  writings  the  same  methods  of 
critical  study  which  we  apply  to  any  other,  sure 
that  the  best  method  of  getting  at  the  thought  of 
God  is  to  get  at  the  life  of  the  man  in  whom  he 
dwelt  and  whose  experience  he  inspired.^ 

of  Christianity,  for  some  illustrations  of  the  principle  embodied  in 
this  paragraph. 

^  Excellent  illustrations  of  the  fruit  of  this  method  of  study  are 


THE  BIBLE   AS  LITERATURE  17 

This  method  of  study  by  literary,  not  textual, 
analysis,  founded  on  the  theological  assumption 
that  God's  revelation  to  man  is  in  and  through  a 
human  experience,  gives,  of  course,  very  different 
results  from  the  former  method.  Subjecting  this 
book  to  this  literary  analysis,  we  find  it,  not  a 
book,  but  a  collection  of  writings.^  If  we  suppose, 
as  I  do,  that  the  oldest  book  of  the  Bible,  the  Book 
of  the  Covenant,^  is,  as  to  its  essential  contents, 
though  not  as  to  its  literary  form,  as  old  as  Moses, 
say  about  b.  C.  1250,  and  that  the  Epistles  of  John 
are  probably  the  latest  books  of  the  Bible,  and 
were  written  about  the  close  of  the  first  century, 
then  a  period  of  thirteen  or  fourteen  centuries 
elapsed  between  the  earliest  and  the  latest  of  these 
writings  ^ ;  and  if  we  can  ascertain  even  approxi- 

furnished  by  Prof.  J.  F.  Genung's  monograph  on  Job,  The  Epic  of 
the  Inner  Life ;  by  Dr.  W.  E.  Griffis's  monograph  on  the  Song  of 
Songs,  The  Lily  among  Thorns ;  and  by  some  of  the  volumes  of 
The  Expositor's  Bible,  especially  that  of  Dr.  Samuel  Cox  on  The 
Book  of  Ecclesiastes  and  that  of  Dr.  George  Adam  Smith  on  The 
Book  of  Isaiah. 

^  Professor  Moulton's  Modern  Header's  Bible  (The  Macmillan 
Company)  represents  this  fact  to  the  eye  by  printing  the  Bible  in 
separate  volumes,  each  of  them  arranged,  as  far  as  practicable, 
as  a  complete  volume  and  in  the  literary  form  -which  he  supposes 
would  characterize  it,  in  order  to  bring  out  its  true  literary  char- 
acter. 

"  Exod.  XX.  1-xxiv.  7.  See  post,  chapter  iv.,  "  The  Political 
Institutions  of  the  Hebrews." 

^  If  modern  scholars  are  correct  in  attributing  the  second  epis- 
tle of  Peter  to  the  middle  or  late  part  of  the  second  century  (see 
A.  C.  McGiifert's  Apostolic  Age,  pp.  602,  603)  the  period  covered 
by  the  Biblical  writings  must  be  extended. 


18      LIFE  AND  LITERATURE   OF  THE  HEBREWS 

mately  the  date  of  the  intermediate  writings,  we 
can  trace  the  rise  and  progress  of  that  conscious 
life  of  God  in  the  soul  of  man  which  constitutes 
the  essence  of  religion.  Thus  the  Bible  becomes 
to  us  what  I  may  call  a  record  of  the  biology  of 
religion.  We  further  find  in  this  volume  an  illus- 
tration of  almost  every  type  of  literature,  at  least 
what  appears  so  to  be,  and  our  theological  assump- 
tion does  not  require  us  to  suppose  that  the  appear- 
ances are  deceptive.  We  find  ancient  legends, 
constitutional  law,  political  statutes,  ecclesiastical 
law,  history,  epic  poetry,  lyric  poetry,  gnomic 
poetry,  drama,  folklore,  fiction,  ethical  culture, 
oratory  —  both  secular  and  spiritual  —  biography, 
philosophy  —  both  rational  and  mystical  —  and 
dream  literature. 

But  the  student  does  not  stop  in  his  analytical 
study  of  this  Hebrew  anthology  with  this  result. 
With  the  aid  of  scholars  he  pursues  the  analysis 
further.  He  analyzes  the  historical  books,  and  by 
the  analysis  discovers  in  them  clear  traces  of  the 
materials  which  the  historian  employed.  He  traces 
in  the  law  books  the  development  of  political  insti- 
tutions from  their  earlier  and  simpler  to  their  later 
and  more  complex  form.  He  discovers  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  Hebrew  Church  the  same  antagonism 
between  simplicity  and  elaborateness  of  ritual  which 
characterizes  the  Church  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and 
the  same  consciousness  of  God  in  the  ancient  Puri- 
tan and  the  ancient  sacerdotalist  which  he  can,  if 
he  will,  discern  in  both  the  analogous  types  of  a 


THE   BIBLE   AS   LITERATURE  19 

later  time.  He  discovers  evidences  of  many  authors 
of  different  temperaments  in  the  collection  of  lyrics 
brought  together  under  the  general  title  of  the 
Psalms.  He  becomes  convinced  that  the  Book  of 
Proverbs  is  not  a  book  by  a  single  royal  author, 
but  a  collection  of  apothegms  gathered  from  many 
sources  and  representing  the  practical  experience 
of  the  ancient  Hebrew  people.  He  discovers  evi- 
dence that  the  writings  of  a  school  of  preachers 
have  sometimes  been  grouped  together  under  the 
general  title  of  one  of  their  number.  These  and 
kindred  facts  which  his  analysis  brings  to  light  very 
materially  modify  the  interpretations  which  are  to 
be  given  to  these  different  writings.  For  no  one 
reads  fiction  as  he  reads  philosophy,  or  poetry  as 
he  reads  law,  or  dream  literature  as  he  reads  his- 
tory. Nor  does  he  expect  science  in  an  unscien- 
tific age,  nor  philosophy  from  a  pui-ely  practical 
age,  nor  Christian  ethics  in  a  barbaric  age,  nor  the 
highest  and  purest  spiritual  experiences  before  the 
spiritual  nature  of  man  has  received  its  later  devel- 
opments. 

I  believe  that  the  final  result  of  this  analysis  will 
be  to  extend  the  use  of  the  Bible,  and  to  enhance 
affection  and  reverence  for  it ;  that  when  we  dis- 
cover God  interpreted  in  the  consciousness  of  im- 
perfect men  like  ourselves,  we  shall  find  that  he  is 
nearer  to  us  than  we  thought  he  was ;  and  when 
every  man  finds  in  this  library  an  interpretation  of 
this  God-consciousness  in  that  form  of  literature 
which  most  appeals  to  him,  its  influence  will  be 


20      LIFE  AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

both  strengthened  and  diffused.  The  chikl  will 
find  it  in  the  story,  the  youth  in  the  romance  and 
the  drama,  the  lawyer  in  the  political  institutions, 
the  ecclesiastic  in  the  canons,  the  moralist  in  the 
apothegms,  the  rationalist  in  the  philosophy,  the 
mystic  in  the  visions,  the  man  of  action  in  the  his- 
tory, and  all  in  the  supreme  biography  which  con- 
stitutes the  natural  climax  of  the  whole  collection. 
This  is  perhaps  to  anticipate  the  conclusion  to 
which  I  hope  in  this  volume  to  conduct  such  read- 
ers as  have  an  inclination  to  read  it  to  the  end. 
Suffice  it  to  say  here  that  the  synthesis  of  the 
modern  study  differs  as  much  from  that  of  the 
ancient  method  as  does  the  analysis  which  I  have 
here  described  from  that  of  the  older  method. 
The  modern  student  can  no  longer  take  texts  from 
Genesis,  Leviticus,  Kings,  Job,  the  Song  of  Songs, 
Isaiah,  and  Romans,  and,  ignoring  the  fact  that 
the  first  book  is  one  of  ancient  tradition,  the  second 
a  book  of  ecclesiastical  canons,  the  third  a  political 
history,  the  fourth  an  epic  poem,  the  fifth  a  drama, 
the  sixth  a  collection  of  odes  and  orations,  and  the 
seventh  an  epistolary  treatise  on  theology,  treat 
them  as  though  they  are  all  to  be  interpreted  in  the 
same  fashion,  and  can  be  combined  in  a  textual 
mosaic  which  should  be  accepted  as  a  standard  in 
theology.  But  he  can  study  the  writings  of  the 
various  authors,  ascertain  the  thought  and  catch 
the  spirit  of  each,  and,  comparing  them  with  one 
another,  learn  in  what  they  agree  and  in  what  they 
differ.     I  believe  that  such  a  synthesis  will  make 


THE   BIBLE   AS   LITERATURE  21 

it  clear  that  these  men  of  dissimilar  epochs,  condi- 
tions, and  temperaments,  widely  as  they  differ,  not 
only  in  their  form  of  expression,  but  in  their  mode 
of  thought,  agree  in  their  essential  spirit,  and,  in 
so  far,  in  their  essential  religious  message.  If  out 
of  such  a  synthesis  there  emerges  a  system  of 
theology  not  so  definite  as  that  framed  by  the 
old  method,  I  believe  it  will  be  less  scholastic  and 
more  spiritual.  If  so,  the  gain  will  far  counter- 
balance any  possible  loss. 

There  is  one  objection,  if  not  to  the  literary 
method  of  study  here  defined  and  defended,  at 
least  to  the  results  here  indicated  and  summarized, 
which  ought  to  be  frankly  stated  and  as  frankly 
met. 

The  Old  Testament  existed,  substantially  in  the 
form  in  which  we  now  possess  it,  certainly  two, 
probably  three,  and  perhaps  four  centuries  prior 
to  the  time  of  Christ,  and  there  was  a  practically 
uniform  tradition  existing  in  the  time  of  Christ 
respecting  the  date  and  authorship  of  most  of 
these  books.  It  was  almost  universally  agreed 
among  the  Hebrew  rabbis  at  that  time  that  Moses 
wrote  the  whole  of  the  Pentateuch  ;  that  Joshua 
wrote  the  Book  of  Joshua ;  that  Samuel  wrote  the 
Books  of  Samuel,  Esther,  and  Judges ;  the  Books 
of  Kings  and  Chronicles  were  conceded  to  be  writ- 
ten b}"-  unknown  authors  ;  Job  was  thought  to  be 
written  by  Moses ;  the  great  majority  of  the 
Psalms  by  David  or  by  men  of  his  age  ;  the  great 
majority  of   the  Proverbs,  the  whole  of  Ecclesi- 


22      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF    THE   HEBREWS 

astes,  and  the  Song  of  Songs  by  Solomon  ;  Daniel 
by  a  prophet  bearing  that  name ;  Isaiah  by  the 
son  of  Amoz ;  and  the  other  prophets  by  the 
writers  whose  names  they  bear.  The  one  possible 
exception  to  this  was  the  Book  of  Jonah,  which 
was  regarded  by  some  Hebrew  scholars  from  a 
very  early  period  as  not  being  written  by  Jonah 
and  as  not  being  historical.  The  traditionalist, 
that  is,  he  who  bases  his  conclusions  concerning 
Scripture  upon  tradition,  considers  that  this  long- 
lived  belief  substantially  settles  the  question  of 
date  and  authorship.  He  says  that  here  is  a  tradi- 
tion which  has  existed  for  two  thousand  years 
practically  undisputed.  It  is  true  that  it  has  been 
in  some  of  its  parts  denied.  Luther  doubted  it ; 
Calvin  denied  it  in  part ;  but,  on  the  whole,  it  has 
been  accej)ted  down  to  about  the  year  1750  with 
very  little  discussion.  This  undisputed  tradition, 
the  traditionalist  thinks,  establishes  the  date  and 
authorship  of  these  books ;  and  he  feels  this  the 
more  strongly  because  he  thinks  these  traditions 
were  accepted  and  indorsed  by  Paul  and  by  Jesus 
Christ,  since  they  both  cited  from  the  books  of 
Moses  and  from  the  different  prophets  without 
any  intimation  that  these  books  were  not  written 
by  the  persons  whose  names  they  bear.^ 

To  this  tradition  the  literary  student,  or  higher 
critic,  pays  little  attention;  the  most  conservative 
of  his  class  is  not  stopped  by  it,  the  more  radical 

^  For  a  full  statement  of  this  argument  see  The   Old   Testa- 
ment under  Fire,  by  A.  J.  F.  Behrends,  D.  D.,  chap.  iii. 


THE  BIBLE   AS  LITERATURE  23 

disregards  it  altogether,  for  a  variety  of  reasons. 
The  fact  that  the  tradition  was  for  so  long  a  time 
undisputed  deprives  it  of  weight,  A  tradition  is 
of  little  scientific  value  until  it  has  been  subjected 
to  careful  investigation ;  and  this  tradition  was 
never  investigated  until  about  a  hundred  and  fifty 
years  ago.  It  is,  therefore,  as  a  tradition,  entitled 
to  no  more  consideration  than  the  Ptolemaic  tradi- 
tion in  astronomy,  or  the  long  undisputed  but  now 
wholly  discarded  traditions  respecting  the  early 
history  of  Greece  and  Rome,  This  particular  tra- 
dition is  of  the  less  value  because  of  the  age  in 
which  it  first  appeared.  If  we  trace  it  back  to  the 
fourth  century  before  Christ,  its  birth  is  a  thousand 
years  after  the  time  of  Moses.  The  scientific 
thinker  can  see  no  reason  for  accrediting  men  who 
lived  a  thousand  years  after  Moses  with  any  better 
facilities  for  determining  the  authorship  of  their 
sacred  books  than  have  the  scholars  of  our  own 
time.  A  tradition  concerning  the  authorship  of  a 
volume  written  ten,  five,  or  even  two  centuries 
before  the  tradition  first  appears  is  not,  to  the  sci- 
entific scholar,  of  any  considerable  value.  If  we 
could  suppose  that  at  that  time  the  question  was 
carefully  studied  by  intelligent  and  unprejudiced 
scholars,  some  weight  might  be  given  to  their  con- 
clusions. But  this  tradition  had  its  rise  among  a 
school  of  rabbis  whose  methods  were  as  far  re- 
moved as  possible  from  those  of  a  rational  and 
unprejudiced  investigator.  Paul,  reared  in  the 
rabbinical  school,  has  treated  these  traditions  with 


24      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

no  respect,  saying  that  when  the  rabbis  read  the 
law  in  their  synagogues  they  had  a  veil  over  the 
face.^  Christ  spoke  of  them  with  even  greater 
severity,  saying  that  by  their  traditions  the  rabbis 
had  made  the  word  of  God  of  none  effect,  and  tell- 
ing his  disciples  that  their  interpretations  of  the 
Old  Testament  showed  them  to  be  fools  and  blind. ^ 
Theologians  who  soberly  maintained  that  the  law 
existed  two  thousand  years  before  the  creation, 
and  that  Jehovah  himself  studied  it  in  the  heavens 
with  his  holy  angels,^  cannot  be  regarded  as  au- 
thority on  questions  of  literature  by  Christian 
scholars  in  this  close  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

Nor  does  Christ  give  to  this  Jewish  tradition  any 
endorsement.  There  is  nothing  inconsistent  with  a 
rational  recognition  of  his  divine  character  in  the 
opinion  that  he  shared  on  these  questions  the  com- 
mon impressions  of  his  time.  But  if  he  did,  he 
never  gave  to  those  impressions  the  weight  of  his 
authority.  He  never  undertook  to  speak  with  au- 
thority on  the  question  of  the  date  or  authorship  of 
Biblical  books.  He  never  makes  Biblical  criticism 
the  subject  of  his  teaching.  He  never  bases  his  au- 
thority on  that  of  the  authors  of  the  Biblical  books. 
Sometimes  he  sets  their  authority  aside,  as  in  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount.  Sometimes  he  cites  their 
own  Scriptures  against  his  critics,  in  much  the  same 

1  2  Cor.  iii.  15.  2  Matt,  xxiii.  17 ;  Mark  vii.  13. 

^  For  illustrations  of  the  spirit  of  traditionalism  in  the  time  of 
Christ  see  Edersheim's  Life  atid  Times  of  Jesus,  Book  I.  chaps, 
vii.  and  viii. 


THE   BIBLE   AS  LITERATURE  25 

spirit  as  that  in  wliieh  Paul,  speaking  in  Athens, 
cites  "  certain  of  your  own  poets."  It  is  true  that 
he  often  refers  to  these  books,  and  when  he  does, 
refers  to  them  by  the  name  by  which  they  were 
known  in  his  time  ;  but  such  a  reference  does  not 
even  indicate  his  opinion  as  to  their  authorship, 
still  less  does  it  indicate  any  intention  on  his  part 
to  make  an  utterance  on  the  subject  which  loyalty 
to  him  must  regard  as  final.  No  popular  writer 
or  speaker  would  hesitate  to  refer  to  ^sop's  Fables, 
although  he  might  agi'ee  with  the  conclusion  of 
modern  scholarship  that  ^Esop  did  not  write  them, 
but  only  gathered  together  the  collection  which 
bears  his  name  from  a  mass  of  fables  current 
among  the  Greeks  of  his  time.^ 

I  invite  the  reader,  then,  who  will  follow  me 
further  in  this  volume  to  follow  me  in  the  spirit  of 
this  Introduction  ;  to  imagine  that  there  stands 
before  him  on  the  table,  not  a  book,  but  a  library 
of  sixty-six  different  books,  which  represent  the 
literature  of  a  peculiar  people,  extending  over  a 
period  of  twelve  hundred  years  or  more,  and  are  a 
survival  of  the  fittest,  out  of  a  much  larger  number 

^  "His  [Christ's]  allusions  to  the  Old  Testament  books  and 
narratives  are  sometimes  made  a  touchstone  for  determining'  ethi- 
cal and  historical  questions,  which  were  as  foreign  to  the  thought 
of  his  time  as  were  the  researches  of  anthropology  or  modern 
science.  If  his  assertion  '  Moses  wrote '  discredits  modern  criti- 
cism, does  not  his  affirmation  that  the  sun  rises  destroy  modern 
astronomy  ?  "  G.  B.  Stevens,  D.  D.,  The  Theology  of  the  New 
Testament,  p.  77.  Compare  Delitzsch  on  Genesis :  Introduction, 
p.  21. 


26      LIFE  AND  LITERATURE   OF  THE  EEBEREWS 

which  have  not  survived  ;  ^  to  remember  that  this 
library  has  produced  a  profound  moral  impression 
on  all  that  portion  of  the  human  race  who  have 
ever  known  it ;  to  believe,  therefore,  that  this  col- , 
lection  is  well  worth  his  careful  study ;  to  assume, 
however,  that  it  is  to  be  studied,  not  as  a  collec- 
tion of  texts,  out  of  which,  by  a  process  of  mosaic 
work,  a  theology  may  be  constructed,  but  as  a  col- 
lection of  vital  literature,  out  of  which,  by  a  course 
of  literary  study,  life  may  be  promoted  and  truth 
made  both  more  apparent  and  more  effective ;  and 
to  enter  on  the  study  of  these  books  in  the  spirit 
in  which  they  were  conceived,  and  with  the  purpose 
for  which  they  were  written,  as  that  purpose  has 
been  defined  by  one  whose  writings  are  recognized  as 
among  the  loftiest  in  the  whole  collection  :  "  Every 
scripture  inspired  of  God  is  also  profitable  for 
teaching,  for  reproof,  for  correction,  for  instruc- 
tion in  righteousness,  that  the  man  of  God  may  be 
complete,  furnished  completely  unto  every  good 
work."  2 

1  ThoTigh  some  of  the  books  to  be  found  in  the  apocryphal 
Old  Testament  are  morally  equal  to  some  of  those  included  in  the 
canon. 

2  2  Tim.  iii.  16,  17. 


CHAPTER  II 

HEBREW   HISTORY 

The  history  of  the  Hebrew  nation,  as  it  is  re- 
corded in  the  Bible,  begins  with  the  exodus  from 
Egypt  of  the  before-enslaved  tribes  ;  this  exodus 
took  place,  according  to  the  opinions  of  modern 
scholars,  about  b.  c.  1250.^  But  the  earlier  history 
contained  in  the  books  of  Exodus,  Leviticus,  and 
Numbers  may  properly  be  regarded  as  constitu- 
tional history,  and  is  so  interwoven  with  the  con- 
stitution and  laws  of  the  Hebrews  that  it  will  be 
more  appropriately  considered  in  the  chapters  de- 
voted to  a  consideration  of  the  origin  and  growth 
of  those  laws.^  The  distinctively  historical  books 
are  those  of  Joshua,  Judges,  First  and  Second 
Samuel,  First  and  Second  Kings,  First  and  Second 
Chronicles,  Ezra,  and  Nehemiah.  If  we  assume 
that  the  exodus  took  place  about  1250  B.  C,  and  the 
restoration  of  Israel  to  her  land  and  the  rebuilding 
of  the  city  and  temple,  as  described  by  Ezra  and 
Nehemiah,  about  the  year  450  b.  c,  the  history  of 
the  ancient  Hebrews,  as  narrated  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, covers  a  period  of  about  eight  hundred  years. 

^  See  clironological  table  on  page  xi. 
^  See  chapters  iv.  and  v. 


28      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF    THE   HEBREWS 

How  were  the  facts  which  are  nari-ated  in  these 
histories  ascertained  by  the  narrator  ? 

A  journalist  lives  and  a  biographer  may  live  in 
the  times  when  the  events  which  he  records  took 
place,  and  then  he  may  tell  what  he  has  himself 
seen ;  but  a  historian  rarely  is  the  narrator  of 
events  of  which  he  was  an  eye-witness  ;  he  generally 
gathers  his  information  from  various  sources,  and 
in  his  history  gives  an  account  of  the  facts  as  he 
has  ascertained  them  by  historical  research.  There 
is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  the  Hebrew  historian 
pursued  any  other  course.^  We  should  exjiect  that, 
writing  of  events  occupying  a  period  of  something 
like  a  thousand  years,  he  would  have  given  us  in 
his  history  the  substance  of  accounts,  documentary 
or  oral,  in  which  the  history  of  those  years  had 
been  preserved  ;  in  other  words,  we  should  expect 
that  other  materials  than  his  own  personal  know- 
ledge would  enter  into  his  history.  This  expecta- 
tion is  confirmed  by  a  study  of  Oriental  literature. 
Oriental  histories,  so  the  scholars  tell  us,  are  rarely 
original ;  they  are  comjjilations.  The  Oriental 
historian  does  not,  as  the  modern  historian,  ex- 
amine and  investigate  original  sources,  and  give  in 
his  own  language  the  results  of  his  investigations  ; 
he  takes  what  I  may  call  the  raw  materials  of  his- 
tory which  he  has  discovered,  and  weaves  them 
together,  connecting  them  by  utterances  of  his  own. 
When  a  new  edition  is  to  be  prepared,  the  new 

^  Luke  expressly  declares  that  he  gathered  the  materials  for 
his  Gospel  to  some  extent  in  this  way  (Luke  i.  1-4). 


HEBREW  HISTORY  29 

writer  simply  takes  this  conglomerate  and  inter- 
calates the  new  material  which  he  has  obtained,  or 
appends  it  in  additional  pages.^ 

If,  then,  we  suppose  that  Hebrew  history  was 
prepared  as  other  Oriental  histories  have  been  pre- 
pared, we  shall  assume  it  possible  by  painstaking- 
study  to  ascertain  to  some  extent  what  are  the 
materials  of  which  it  was  composed.  This  is  what 
modern  students  of  Hebrew  history  have  done; 
they  have  separated  it  into  its  constituent  parts. 
They  are  not  all  of  one  mind  in  the  details,  but 
they  are  all  of  one  mind  in  the  belief  that  the 
Hebrew  history  is  not  only  composed  from  pre- 
existing materials,  as  Macaulay's  history  or  Green's 
history,  but  that  it  is  so  composed  of  preexist- 
ing materials  that,  through  linguistic  peculiarities, 
forms  of  expression,  historical  references,  and  other 
indications,  the  various  elements  of  the  history  can 
be  measurably  distinguished.  Even  the  English 
reader  of  the  Bible  cannot  fail  to  distinguish  two 
of  these  constituent  elements  in  the  later  history 
of  the  Hebrews,  because  these  elements  are  not  com- 
bined in  one  narrative.     From  the  time  of  David, 

^  "  It  is  the  law  of  Oriental  history  writing,  in  fact,  that  one 
book  should  annihilate  its  predecessor.  The  sources  of  a  com- 
pilation rarely  survive  the  compilation  itself.  A  book  in  the  East 
is  rarely  recopied  just  as  it  stands.  It  is  brought  up  to  date  by 
the  addition  to  it  of  what  is  knov/n,  or  supposed  to  be  known, 
from  other  sources.  The  individuality  of  the  historical  book  does 
not  exist  in  the  East ;  it  is  the  substance,  not  the  form,  which  is 
held  of  importance,  and  no  scruple  is  felt  about  mixing  up  authors 
and  styles.  The  end  sought  is  to  be  complete,  and  that  is  all." 
The  History  of  Israel,  by  Ernest  Renan,  vol.  iii.  pp.  50,  51. 


30      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

that  is,  about  1000  b.  c,  to  the  time  of  the  cap- 
tivity, that  is,  about  600  b.  c,  the  history  is  con- 
tained in  two  narratives,  parallel  in  time  but  very 
different  in  spirit  —  the  First  and  Second  Books 
of  Kings  and  the  First  and  Second  Books  of 
Chronicles. 

Thinkers  may  be  roughly  divided  into  two  great 
types,  one  of  which  lays  emphasis  on  truth,  the 
other  on  organization.  The  first,  fixing  its  atten- 
tion on  truth,  forgets  that  to  be  efficient  in  society 
truth  must  be  embodied ;  the  second,  fixing  its 
attention  on  the  mediating  organization,  forgets 
the  truth  which  alone  can  vitalize  it.  Men  of  the 
first  type,  having  no  objective  standard,  often  make 
a  standard  of  their  own  personal  opinions ;  indif- 
ferent to  the  cooperation  of  their  fellow-men  and 
strenuous  in  their  own  opinions,  they  refuse  to 
compromise  the  latter  to  gain  the  former ;  and  thus 
become  irreconcilables  and  impracticables.  Men 
of  the  second  type,  overestimating  the  force  of 
numbers  and  of  authority,  and  underestimating  the 
force  inherent  in  moral  principles,  too  readily  yield 
principles  to  gain  recruits.  They  may,  indeed,  be 
quite  ready  to  sacrifice  self  to  truth,  but  they  ai*e 
too  ready  to  sacrifice  truth  to  organization.  Lack- 
ing a  standard  in  themselves,  they  seek  it  in  the 
body  to  which  they  have  attached  themselves.  In 
philosophy  the  first  type  of  man  is  always  a  moral 
reformer,  generally  an  independent,  often  a  doc- 
trinaire. His  loyalty  to  his  own  convictions  is 
strong  ;  his  loyalty  to  party  is  slight.     The  second 


HEBREW    HISTORY  31 

seeks  to  carry  moral  reform  only  so  far  as  he  can 
carry  it  through  a  political  organization ;  he  is 
generally  an  opportunist ;  he  sometimes  degener- 
ates into  what  is  called  a  "machine  politician." 
In  religion  the  first  has  faith,  but  no  creed :  he 
worships,  but  without  a  ritual ;  he  is  religious,  but 
unchurchly.  When  organization  meant  the  Church 
of  Rome,  he  was  a  Protestant ;  when  it  meant  the 
Established  Church,  a  Puritan ;  when  it  meant 
Presbyterianism,  an  Independent ;  and  when  it 
meant  Congregationalism,  a  "  Come-outer."  The 
second  is  always  a  Churchman,  though  he  may 
be  a  Roman  Churchman,  an  Anglican  Churchman, 
a  Presbyterian  Churchman,  or  a  Congregational 
Churchman.  He  is  a  defender  of  creeds,  of  the 
established  order,  of  the  ancient  traditions  —  or,  if 
he  is  inclined  to  reform,  he  will  not  carry  reform 
so  far  as  to  break  with  the  traditions  of  the  past  or 
the  recognized  authorities  of  his  own  ecclesiastical 
organization.  In  the  history  of  the  world  the  first 
is  interested  in  the  progress  of  ideas,  the  second  in 
the  development  of  institutions.  Is  he  a  historian  ? 
the  first  writes  the  story  of  popular  life,  the  second 
that  of  institutional  life.  John  Richard  Green, 
writing  the  history  of  the  English  people,  repre- 
sents the  first ;  Lord  Macaulay,  measuring  all 
events  by  their  relation  to  Whig  principles  and 
policies,  or  Lord  Clarendon,  measuring  them  by 
their  relation  to  the  Royalist  principles  and  policies, 
represents  the  second. 

This  distinction  is  apparent  upon  even  a  most 


32      LIFE  AND   LITERATURE   OF  THE  HEBREWS 

cursory  comparison  of  the  Books  of  Kings  and  of 
Chronicles.  The  Book  of  Chronicles  —  really  one 
book  in  two  parts  —  is  written  by  an  ecclesiastic 
who  identifies  the  religion  of  the  Hebrew  people 
with  its  churchly  forms.  His  history  is  essentially 
Levitical  in  contents  and  in  spirit  —  the  history  of 
Jerusalem,  of  the  Temple,  and  of  the  Temple  ordi- 
nances. National  events  are  measured  by  their 
relation  to  the  institutions  of  religion.  When  the 
separation  of  the  before-united  kingdom  takes 
place,  and  the  ten  tribes  form  a  nation  by  them- 
selves in  northern  Palestine,  leaving  Jerusalem  in 
the  hands  of  the  southern  tribes,  the  author  of 
Chronicles  does  not  include  them  in  his  subsequent 
history,  for  they  have  no  Temple,  no  Levitical 
priesthood,  no  orthodox  ritual;  to  him,  therefore, 
they  are  to  all  intents  and  purposes  as  pagans. 
Even  the  intensely  religious  and  dramatically  ro- 
mantic lives  of  Elijah  and  Elisha  do  not  concern 
him  ;  they  are  in  the  northern  kingdom,  and  they 
are  unrelated  to  the  ecclesiastical  institutions  of 
Hebraism.  On  the  other  hand,  he  gives  in  great 
detail  the  organization  of  the  hierarchy,  the  furnish- 
ing of  the  Temple,  the  genealogies  of  the  tribes, 
lists  of  the  cities  of  the  Levites,  and  makes  much 
of  the  glory  of  Solomon,  the  builder  of  the  Temple, 
and  nothing  of  his  decadence  and  fall.  The  Book 
of  Kings  —  for  this  also  is  one  book  in  two  parts  — 
is  as  distinctly  prophetic  as  the  parallel  history  is 
priestly  in  its  character.  "  The  writer  records  the 
fulfillment  of  the  promises  which  God  had  made  to 


HEBREW    HISTORY  33 

David  and  lils  line.  A  son  was  to  succeed  David 
whose  kingdom  should  be  established  of  the  Lord, 
who  should  build  a  house  for  the  Name  of  Jehovah, 
and  to  whom  God  would  be  a  Father  and  from 
whom  the  name  of  the  Lord  should  not  depart.^ 
To  show  that  this  prophecy  was  fulfilled  is  the 
object  of  the  Book  of  Kings,  and  what  does  not 
conduce  thereto  is  passed  over  by  the  compiler 
with  little  notice."  ^  It  is  he  alone  who  tells  the 
story  of  Elijah  and  Elisha,  he  alone  who  records 
the  influence  of  Isaiah  in  the  reforms  of  Heze- 
kiah,  he  alone  who,  in  telling  the  story  of  Josiah's 
reform,  indicates  the  extent  to  which  the  pollutions 
of  the  Temple  and  the  priesthood  had  been  carried 
in  the  previous  reign  of  Manasseh.  Each  deals 
with  the  nation  as  the  people  of  God  ;  but  to  the  one 
the  divine  life  is  centred  in  the  ecclesiastical  organi- 
zation, to  the  other  that  life  is  manifested  in  the 
activity  of  the  prophets,  who  belong  to  no  order 
and  are  representatives  of  no  organization.  So 
marked  is  the  difference  between  the  two  narratives 
that  some  scholars  have  attributed  the  Book  of 
Chronicles  to  Ezra,  the  Book  of  Kings  to  Jere- 
miah ;  it  is  certain  that  the  one  is  continued  with- 
out a  break,  except  a  purely  formal  one,  in  the 
history  of  Ezra  ;  it  is  equally  certain  that  the  other 
is  pervaded  by  the  spirit,  not  of  the  Levitical  code, 

^  2  Sam.  chap.  vii. 

2  Cambridge   Bible  for  Schools  and  Colleges,  Book   of  Kings. 
Introduction,  p.  xxiv. 


34      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

but  of  the  prophetic  law  contained  in  the  Book  of 
Deuteronomy.^ 

The  modern  scholar,  seeing  these  two  types  of 
history,  the  jDriestly  and  the  prophetic,  in  the  later 
historical  books  of  the  Bible,  has  looked  for  and 
found  them  in  the  earlier  books,  though  woven  to- 
gether into  a  single  strand.  The  priestly  narrative 
and  the  prophetic  narrative,  apparent  to  the  casual 
English  reader,  in  the  form  of  our  English  Bible, 
from  the  reign  of  David  to  the  Captivity,  appear 
scarcely  less  evident  to  the  modern  literary  student 
of  the  Bible  in  the  historical  narrative  from  the 
creation  of  the  world  to  the  time  of  David.  In  his 
analysis  of  the  composite  narrative  the  modern 
student  may  be  sometimes  mistaken ;  but  that 
there  were  originally  two  such  narratives,  and  that 
the  two  have  been  united  in  the  one  narrative  which 
we  now  possess,  is  regarded  by  all  scholars  who 
apply  literary  and  scientific  methods  to  the  study 
of  the  Bible  as  beyond  all  question. 

In  the  first  century  after  Christ,  Tatian  con- 
structed a  harmony  of  the  Gospels  which  is  known 

^  "Jewish  tradition  assigns  the  authorship  of  Kings  to  Jere- 
miah. Modem  criticism  neither  unreservedly  accepts  nor  wholly 
rejects  this  ascription."  Canon  F.  C.  Cook,  Bible  Commentary. 
"  The  recurrence  of  the  final  passage  of  our  present  copies  of 
Chronicles  at  the  commencement  of  Ezra,  taken  in  conjunction 
with  the  undoubted  fact  that  there  is  a  very  close  resemblance  of 
style  and  tone  between  the  two  books,  suggests  naturally  the 
explanation,  which  has  been  accepted  by  some  of  the  best  critics, 
that  the  two  works,  Chronicles  and  Ezra,  were  originally  one  and 
were  afterward  separated."     Ibid. 


HEBREW  HISTORY  35 

as  the  DIatessaron.  It  lias  been  recently  discov- 
ered in  the  Vatican,  translated,  and  published.  If 
the  Four  Gospels  had  disappeared,  we  should  have 
in  this  Diatessaron  one  Gospel  composed  of  the 
four  narratives  previously  existing.  Modern  schol- 
ars are  unanimously  of  the  opinion  that  the  Old 
Testament  historical  narratives,  prior  to  the  Book 
of  Kings,  are,  in  a  somewhat  similar  manner,  com- 
posed of  two  or  more  previously  existing  narratives, 
and  that  it  is  possible,  to  some  extent,  to  separate 
the  history  into  its  different  elements.  One  of 
these  narratives  is  known  as  the  priestly,  or  some- 
times the  Elohist  narrative,  because  in  it  the  He- 
brew word  Elohim  is  used  to  designate  God  ;  the 
other  is  termed  the  prophetic,  or  sometimes  the 
Jahvist  narrative,  because  in  it  the  Hebrew  word 
Jahveh  or  Jehovah  is  generally  used  to  designate 
God.  When  the  two  words  Jahveh-Elohim,  or,  as 
rendered  in  our  English  Bible,  the  Lord  God,  are 
used,  the  two  narratives  have  been  combined  in 
one  by  an  unknown  editor.  The  opinion  that  the 
historical  books  are  thus  composed  of  preexisting 
documents  is  what  is  known  as  the  Documentary 
Hypothesis.  But  the  scientific  or  literary  student 
of  the  Bible  regards  this  opinion  as  no  longer  h^'po- 
thetical. 

He  also  thinks  that  these  original  elements  them- 
selves are  not  original  writings,  but  are  composed 
of  preexisting  materials,  and  these  materials  also, 
by  painstaking  study,  he  endeavors  to  discover  and 
make  clear.     It   would   involve   too   great   detail 


36      LIFE   AND    LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

and  carry  me  too  far  from  my  main  purpose  to  re- 
port here  the  conclusions  to  which  this  analysis  has 
led  modern  students,^  but  the  principle  is  clearly 
illustrated  by  original  elements  easily  discernible 
in  the  Bible  by  the  English  reader.  Whole  books 
are  embodied  in  this  history ;  as,  the  Book  of 
the  Covenant  in  the  Book  of  Exodus,  or  the  larger 
Book  of  the  Covenant  in  the  Book  of  Deuteron- 
omy.^ Ancient  songs  are  embodied  in  it,  like  the 
song  of  Deborah  and  Barak  in  the  Book  of  Judges, 
or  the  elegy  of  David  ovar  Saul  and  Jonathan  in 
the  Book  of  Samuel.^  Other  books  now  lost  are 
referred  to  by  name  and  quoted  verbatim  by  the 
Hebrew  historians.  There  are  twelve  such  books 
mentioned  in  the  Old  Testament  as  authority  for 
statements  made.  They  are :  The  Wars  of  the 
Lord,  the  Book  of  Jasher,  the  Book  of  Samuel 
concerning  the  Kingdom,  the  Book  of  Solomon, 
the  Chronicles  of  David,  the  Acts  of  Solomon,  the 
Acts  of  Nathan,  Samuel,  and  Gad,  the  Book  of 
Ahijah  the  Shilonite,  the  Visions  of  Iddo,  the  Book 
of  Shemaiah  the  Prophet,  the  Book  of  Jehu,  the 
Sayings  of  the  Seei's.*     In  some  cases  these  books 

^  The  object  of  the  Polychrome  Bible  is  to  make  clear  to  the 
reader  by  colors  the  different  material  of  which  scholars  believe 
the  narratives  are  composed.  The  principle  applies  also  to  other 
than  the  historical  books. 

^  Exod.  xx.-xxiv.  7  ;  Deut.  xii.-xxvi. 

8  Judg.  v. ;   2  Sam.  i.  17-27. 

*  Num.  xxi.  14 ;  Josh.  x.  13 ;  2  Sam.  i.  18  ;  1  Sam.  x.  25 ; 
1  Kings  iv.  32,  33  ;  1  Chron.  xxvii.  24 ;  1  Kings  xi.  41 ;  1  Chron. 
xxix.  29 ;  2  Chron.  ix.  29 ;  xii.  15  ;  xx.  34  ;  xxxiii.  19. 


HEBREW  HISTORY  37 

are  simply  referred  to ;  iu  some  there  are  definite 
and  explicit  quotations  from  them.  One  quotation 
may,  perhaps,  serve  as  well  as  many  to  illustrate 
the  kind  of  use  which  these  Hebrew  historians 
made  of  preexisting  material,  acknowledging  their 
indebtedness  therefor :  — 

"  And  the  sun  stood  still,  and  the  moon  stayed,  until 
the  people  had  avenged  themselves  upon  their  enemies. 
Is  not  this  Aviitten  In  the  Book  of  Jasher  ?  So  the  sun 
stood  stIU  In  the  midst  of  heaven,  and  hasted  not  to  go 
down  about  a  whole  day." 

This  famous  passage  in  Joshua,  which  has  been  a 
puzzle  to  so  many  men,  is  explicitly  said  to  be 
quoted  from  a  more  ancient  record  —  the  Book  of 
Jasher — which  is  now  believed  to  have  been  an 
ancient  war-song.^  In  addition  to  these  are  offi- 
cial records  incorporated  iu  the  Old  Testament 
histories.  In  the  Book  of  Ezra,  for  example,  we 
have  a  copy  of  what  purports  to  be  a  letter  sent  to 
Darius  by  certain  opponents  of  the  Hebrews,  seek- 
ing to  secure  an  edict  from  the  king  to  prevent  the 
rebuilding  of  Jerusalem  ;  a  copy  of  a  second  letter 
sent  by  the  Hebrews  in  reply,  seeking  for  permis- 
sion to  continue  the  rebuilding  of  Jerusalem ;  and 
a  copy,  or  what  purports  to  be  a  copy,  of  the  offi- 
cial edict  which  came  back  from  Darius  the  king 

^  Josh.  X.  13 ;  compare  2  Sain.  i.  18.  "  From  these  passages 
(and  no  other  are  extant  which  can  be  proved  to  be  extracted 
from  it),  the  general  character  of  tlie  book  and  its  contents  seem 
apparent.  Both  passages  are  unquestionably  rhythmical  in  struc- 
ture and  poetical  in  diction."    Bible  Commentari/,  on  Josh.  x.  13. 


38      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

in  response.^  It  is  possible,  of  course,  that  these 
are  not  copies ;  that  they  are  written  by  the  his- 
torian in  his  own  language,  and  for  the  purpose  of 
imparting  a  dramatic  vigor  to  the  narrative  ;  but  the 
indications  are  that  he  had  access  to  certain  official 
records  which  had  come  down  to  his  time  and  of 
which  he  made  use  in  telling  his  story. 

Finally  we  have  early  traditions  and  popular 
folk-lore  —  songs  the  mothers  sing  to  their  children, 
stories  the  mothers  tell  their  children  —  inserted  in 
the  narrative  for  the  purpose  of  illustrating  phases 
of  life  with  which  the  historian  was  concerned,  and 
which  he  was  endeavoring  to  interpret  to  his  read- 
ers. Such  are  the  story  of  Balaam's  ass,  the  Sam- 
son stories,  and  perhaps  some  of  the  Elisha  stories.^ 

Thus  a  careful  examination  even  of  our  English 
Bible  makes  it  clear  that  it  is  composed  of  pre- 
existing material,  some  portions  of  which  it  is  pos- 
sible for  us  to  distinguish,  showing  whence  it  came 
and  what  is  its  character.  The  difficulty  of  doing 
this  is  enhanced  and  the  appearance  of  unity  in  the 
narrative  is  increased  by  the  fact  that  the  ancients 
had  none  of  those  mechanical  contrivances  of  which 
we  make  such  free  use  to  indicate  selections  and 
quotations.  Quotation  marks,  parentheses,  foot- 
notes, and  appendices  are  all  comparatively  mod- 
ern.    When  an  editor  of  previous  writings  desired 

1  Ezra  iv.,  v.,  vi. 

"^  See  The  Bible  and  its  Supremacy,  by  Dean  Farrar,  chap, 
xrii. ;  Scriptures  Hebreiv  and  Christian,  by  E.  T.  Bartlett,  D.  D., 
and  John  P.  Peters,  D.  D.,  vol.  ii.  part  3. 


HEBREW   HISTORY  39 

to  add  something  from  some  other  writer,  or  an 
interpolation  of  his  own,  he  had  no  other  method 
of  doing  this  than  by  incorporating  the  addition 
directly  and  immediately  in  the  narrative,  of  which 
it  henceforth  became  an  indistinguishable  portion. 
How,  then,  the  question  will  be  asked,  can  we 
know  what  is  true  and  what  is  false  in  this  Hebrew 
history  ?  If  the  historian  gathered  all  sorts  of 
material,  —  official  records,  popular  songs,  current 
stories,  ancient  documents,  prehistoric  legends, — 
and  out  of  all  this  material  composed  his  history, 
how  can  we  tell  what  of  it  is  trustworthy  ?  And 
if  we  cannot  tell  what  of  it  is  trustworthy,  if  there 
is  no  unfailing  standard  of  judgment,  does  not  the 
motto,  "  False  in  one,  false  in  all,"  apply?  This 
question  will  perhaps  press  upon  the  honest  and 
candid  inquirer  with  greater  force  if  he  recalls  the 
undoubted  fact  that  the  age  in  which  the  Bible 
was  composed  was  not  a  critical  age.  John  Adding- 
ton  Symonds,  in  his  history,  "  The  Renaissance 
in  Italy,"  has  discriminated  very  justly  between 
three  stages  in  the  history  of  scholarship :  the  age 
of  passionate  desire  ;  the  age  of  indiscriminate  ac- 
quisition ;  and  the  age  of  critical  scholarship.^  If, 
as  the  modern  scholars  believe,  the  historical  books 
of  the  Old  Testament  were  finally  edited  in  their 
present  form  about  the  time  of  the  Kestoration, 
say  450  b.  c,  the  editing  took  place  in  an  era  of 
indiscriminate  acquisition,  and  this  fact,  while  it 
lends  additional  sanction  to  the  theory  that  the 
1  The  Age  of  the  Depots,  by  J.  A.  Symonds,  pp.  20-22. 


40      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

history  of  the  Hebrew  people,  as  we  possess  it,  is 
a  composition  of  earlier  materials,  not  critically 
weighed  and  measured,  does  by  just  so  much  de- 
tract from  its  scientific  accuracy  as  a  historical 
record . 

It  might  suffice  in  reply  to  quote  the  conclusion 
concerning  the  historical  value  of  these  ancient 
records  recorded  by  one  of  the  most  radical  of  the 
modern  critics,  Professor  C.  H.  Cornill.  In  "  The 
Rise  of  the  People  of  Israel,"  he  says  :  — 

"  I  hold  the  firm  and  well-grounded  conviction  that  the 
traditions  of  the  people  of  Israel  itself  regarding  its  ear- 
fiest  history  are  thorouglily  historical  in  all  essential 
points,  and  can  sustain  the  keenest  and  most  searching 
criticism.  Poetic  legends  have,  indeed,  woven  about 
those  ancient  traditions  a  misty,  magic  veil  which  charms 
the  eye  and  captivates  the  heart,  and  in  which  lies  the 
spell  that  those  traditions  cast  over  every  unbiased  mind. 
Not  with  rude  vandal  hand  should  we  tear  away  this 
veil,  but  with  loving  care  resolve  it  into  its  single  threads 
and  remove  it  with  considerate  hand,  so  that  the  origi- 
nal image  may  stand  forth  in  its  unadorned  simplicity 
and  naked  chastity,  and  then  we  shall  see  that  it  is  really 
a  noble  human  figure,  and  not  a  mere  creature  of  the 
imagination  that  was  concealed  beneath  the  protecting 
cover  of  this  veil." 

Have  we  not  a  stronger  basis  for  our  faith  in  all 
that  is  important  in  Hebrew  history,  after  that 
history  has  been  searched  by  one  inspired  by  the 
scientific  spirit  who  has  no  preconceptions  in  regard 
to  its  truth,  and  who  is  perfectly  ready  to  subject 


HEBREW  HISTORY  41 

it  to  the  same  kind  of  searching  criticism  to  which 
he  will  subject  any  other  literature,  and  who,  as 
the  result  of  that  searching  criticism,  reaches  the 
"  firm  and  well  grounded  conviction  that  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  people  of  Israel  .  .  .  are  thoroughly 
historical  in  all  essential  points,"  than  we  could 
have  had  if  there  had  been  no  such  critical  investi- 
gation into  its  historical  truthfulness  ? 

Nevertheless,  I  think  it  must  be  conceded  by  the 
candid  student  that  we  have  no  such  assurance  as 
our  fathers  thought  they  possessed  as  to  the  accu- 
racy of  the  statements  oifact  of  the  Bible  history; 
but  it  does  not  follow  that  our  faith  in  its  truth  is 
any  less  clearly  established.  There  is  an  evident 
and  an  important  difference  between  statements  of 
fact  and  statements  of  truth,  and  ignoring  that 
difference  has  involved  Bible  students  in  needless 
perplexity.  A  statement  which  agrees  with  an 
outward  and  objective  existence  is  a  fact,  or,  more 
accurately,  the  statement  of  a  fact ;  a  statement 
which  agrees  with  a  subjective  and  invisible  prin- 
ciple is  a  truth.  Strictly  speaking,  truth  includes 
fact,  that  is,  all  correct  statements  of  fact  are 
truth ;  but  all  truths  are  not  facts.  It  is  a  fact 
that  Csesar  crossed  the  Rubicon ;  it  is  a  truth  that 
God  is  love. 

Now,  it  is  a  matter  of  absolute  unimportance  to 
us  whether  in  all  particulars  the  Hebrew  history 
accords  with  the  facts ;  but  it  is  of  the  utmost 
importance  for  us  to  know  whether  or  not  its 
statements  accord  with  the  truth.     A  single  illus- 


42      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

tration  taken  from  the  New  Testament  will  make 
this  distinction  clear.  Whether  Jesus  Christ  was 
born  in  Bethlehem  or  in  Nazareth  is  not  a  question 
which  materially  affects  the  moral  character  of 
mankind.  A  man  may  be  as  good  and  as  devout 
a  man,  and  as  sincere  a  follower  of  Jesus  Christ, 
if  he  believes  that  Jesus  Christ  was  born  in  Naza- 
reth as  if  he  believes  that  he  was  born  in  Bethle- 
hem. But  the  question  whether  the  life  of  Christ 
corresponds  to  the  divine  ideal,  whether  it  is  such 
a  life  that  men  ought  to  follow  it,  whether  his 
character  is  such  as  corresponds  to  that  of  the 
Divine,  the  Eternal,  the  Invisible  One  —  that  is  a 
profound  question,  the  answer  to  which  must  deter- 
mine the  quality  of  the  answerer's  devotion  and  the 
course  of  his  life.  That  is  a  question  of  truth  ;  the 
other  is  a  question  of  fact.  It  is  a  matter  of  no 
more  concern  to  us  to  know  of  how  many  thou- 
sand men  David's  army  was  composed  on  some 
great  occasion  than  it  is  for  us  to  know  how  many 
men  some  Greek  general  had  in  his  campaign  ;  but 
whether  the  fundamental  principles  of  national  life 
are  rightly  interpreted  by  the  Hebrew  historian  — 
that  concerns  our  very  life,  national  and  individual. 
History  may  be  divided  into  three  classes :  the 
factual,  the  philosophical,  and  the  epic.  By  factual 
history  I  mean  history  which  undertakes  simply  to 
tell  the  facts.  The  writer  of  such  history  cares  for 
nothing  else.  He  does  not  inquire  what  the  facts 
signify ;  what  is  their  human  interest ;  what  is 
their  moral  meaning :    he  simply  seeks  to  know 


HEBREW  HISTORY  43 

what  is  the  fact,  and  he  will  sometimes  spend 
weeks  and  even  months  in  the  investigation  of  a 
date,  in  order  to  secure  accuracy  in  his  facts.  The 
official  report  of  a  department  may  be  taken  as  an 
illustration  of  factual  history.  The  head  of  the 
dej^artment  is  not  supposed  to  have,  though  he 
sometimes  does,  any  ends  to  serve,  any  lessons  to 
teach,  any  interest  to  awaken ;  it  is  his  business 
simply  to  give  the  statistical  results  of  his  investi- 
gation. There  is  not  much  that  is  philosophic  or 
epic  about  the  records  of  a  census.  The  philosophic 
historian  is  one  who  is  interested  in  facts  only 
or  chiefly  because  they  illustrate  or  enforce  some 
theory.  The  facts  are  not  ends ;  they  are  simply 
instruments  in  his  hands :  he  summons  his  facts  as 
a  lawyer  calls  his  witness,  that  they  may  testify 
on  his  behalf.  Few  scholars  would  go  to  Buckle's 
"  History  of  Civilization  "  to  get  an  accurate  state- 
ment of  the  facts  of  the  periods  with  which  he  dealt. 
Buckle  wished  to  demonstrate  a  certain  theory  of 
civilization,  and  with  great  ingenuity  he  brought 
together  facts  which  would  help  to  demonstrate  his 
theory.  He  wrote  a  philosophical  history.  Some- 
where between  these  two  is  what  I  will  call  epic  his- 
tory. The  epic  historian  is  not  interested  in  mere 
fact,  nor  has  he  a  philosophy  or  theory  which  he 
wishes  to  demonstrate.  He  is  interested  in  certain 
phases  of  human  life,  and  he  uses  the  facts  of  his- 
tory, as  the  dramatist  uses  the  creations  of  his  imag- 
ination, to  interpret  human  life.  Fronde's  "  Life 
of  Erasmus  "  is  a  good  illustration  of  epic  history. 


44      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

The  history  of  the  ancient  times  was  epic  history. 
The  ancient  peoples  did  not  discriminate  carefully 
between  fact  and  fiction,  between  observation  and 
imagination,  between  what  they  had  seen  and  what 
they  pictured  to  themselves.  Their  poetry,  there- 
fore, is  historical  poetry,  having  its  roots  in  history ; 
and  their  history  is  poetical  history,  portrayed  for 
the  purpose  of  interesting  their  readers  in  certain 
j^hases  of  human  life.  Homer's  Iliad  we  now  know 
is  based  on  certain  facts  of  life  far  back  in  Greek 
history ;  the  historicity  of  the  siege  of  Troy  has 
been  pretty  well  established  by  Schliemann's  in- 
vestigations ;  but  to  what  extent  Homer's  repre- 
sentation of  the  facts  of  that  siege  is  historically 
accurate  in  detail  it  is  impossible  to  determine. 
On  the  other  hand,  Herodotus  does  not  hesitate  to 
use  tradition,  story,  fiction,  myth,  anything  that 
will  aid  him  to  make  interesting  the  story  which  he 
writes.  And  yet  Herodotus  is  called  the  "  father 
of  history."  He  writes  for  a  purpose.  His  pur- 
pose is  not  to  tell  exactly  what  has  happened  —  his 
history  is  not  factual;  nor  is  his  purpose  to  estab- 
lish a  philosophy  which  he  desires  to  demonstrate 
—  his  history  is  not  philosophic ;  his  purpose  is  to 
illustrate  certain  phases  of  Greek  life  and  char- 
acter in  which  he  is  profoundly  interested.  He  has 
stated  this  purpose  very  explicitly  in  the  very  first 
sentence  of  his  history.  "  This,"  he  says,  "  is  a 
publication  of  the  researches  of  Herodotus  of  Hali- 
carnassus,  in  order  that  the  actions  of  men  may 
not  be  effaced  by  time,  nor  the  great  and  wondrous 


HEBREW  HISTORY  45 

deeds  displayed  both  by  Greeks  and  barbarians  de- 
prived of  renown :  and  amongst  the  rest,  for  what 
cause  they  waged  war  upon  each  other."  This  is 
the  purpose  of  Herodotus's  history  —  to  make  clear 
to  all  future  time  the  renown  of  the  Greek  people. 

To  this  class  Hebrew  history  belongs.  It  is  not 
factual  history ;  it  is  not  written  by  men  who  spent 
time  and  labor  in  securing  accuracy  in  historical 
detail.  They  rarely  give  a  date ;  the  dates  of 
Biblical  history,  so  far  as  we  possess  them  at  all, 
have  been  ascertained  by  subsequent  and  more 
scientific  historians.  In  some  cases,  as  in  the 
early  history  of  David,  two  apparently  incongruous 
accounts  current  in  their  time  are  incorporated  in 
the  narrative  without  any  attempt  to  explain  the 
incongruity  or  to  harmonize  the  narratives.  That 
has  been  left  for  subsequent  scholars  to  attempt. 
It  is  clear  from  such  facts  as  these  that  these  his- 
tories are  not  compiled  by  men  whose  interest  was 
in  minute  historical  scholarship.  Nor  were  they 
compiled  by  philosophical  historians  whose  object 
it  was  to  prove  or  to  illustrate  a  theory.  They  do 
not  resemble  Buckle's  "  History  of  Civilization." 
The  Hebrew  was  rarely  a  philosopher;  he  had 
few  theories,  and  those  were  of  the  simplest  de- 
scription. 

The  Bible  histories  are  epic  histories.  The  his- 
torians were  interested  in  one  phase  of  human  life 
—  a  phase  wbich  maj"-  be  expressed  by  the  single 
sentence,  God  is  in  his  world.  They  believed  in  a 
living  God,  a  God  who  dwelt  with  his  people,  who 


46      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

guided  and  inspired  them,  who  rewarded  them 
when  they  did  right  and  punished  them  when  they 
did  wrong,  who  was  stronger  than  the  strongest, 
and  was  about  them  as  the  mountains  about  Jeru- 
salem. They  believed  in  the  faith  of  the  prophets 
that  Jehovah  was  able  to  pluck  up  and  pull  down 
and  destroy  the  nation,  or  to  build  it  and  to  plant 
it  at  his  will.^  They  saw  in  the  history  of  their 
own  people  the  witness  of  this  presence  and  power 
of  the  Living  God.  They  wrote  history,  not  as 
Buckle,  to  prove  a  theory ;  not  as  Herodotus,  to 
preserve  the  memory  of  the  great  and  wondi'ous 
deeds  of  an  ancient  people ;  not  as  Macaulay,  to 
trace  the  rise  and  progress  of  certain  political 
principles  as  embodied  in  a  great  political  party ; 
not  as  John  Richard  Green,  to  show  the  develop- 
ment of  a  great  nation  from  small  beginnings  to 
a  position  of  imperial  influence  and  power ;  they 
wrote  the  history  of  the  Hebrew  people  to  exhibit 
the  dealings  of  the  Living  God  with  his  people 
and  with  the  peoples  who  wei'e  related  to  them.  It 
is  this  which  gives  to  Biblical  history  its  peculiar 
character.  That  history  is  less  dramatic  than 
Froude,  less  philosophic  than  Buckle,  less  scien- 
tific than  Freeman,  less  democratic  than  Green, 
less  romantic  than  Herodotus ;  but  it  is  of  all  his- 
tories the  most  religious,  because,  above  all  other 
histories,  ancient  or  modern,  it  endeavors  to  inter- 
pret the  part  the  Living  God  took  in  the  history 
of  a  peculiar  people. 

1  Jer.  viii.  7,  9. 


HEBREW  HISTORY  47 

It  is  for  this  reason  that  the  Hebrew  historian 
makes  no  attempt  to  exalt  the  virtues  or  conceal 
the  vices  of  either  the  people  or  its  leaders.  With 
a  frankness  which  has  often  been  misinterpreted, 
he  narrates  the  domestic  infelicities  of  Abraham, 
the  treachery  of  Jacob,  the  shortsighted  statesman- 
ship of  Joseph,  unconsciously  preparing  by  a  com- 
mercial monopoly  for  the  future  enslavement  of 
his  race,  the  passion  and  the  penitence  of  Moses, 
the  self-will  of  the  athletic  but  inefficient  Samson, 
the  superstition  of  Jephtha,  the  insane  jealousy  of 
Saul,  the  adultery  of  David,  the  corrupt  commer- 
cialism of  Solomon.  He  is  equally  frank  in  dealing 
with  the  nation :  in  describing  its  idolatries  at 
the  foot  of  Sinai,  its  childish  waywardness  in  the 
wilderness,  its  alternate  cowardice  and  cruelty  of 
conscience  in  the  Canaanite  campaigns,  its  abject 
submission  to  a  bondage  which  it  needed  only  cour- 
age to  repel,  its  repeated  degeneracies  and  aposta- 
sies, and  its  final  captivity  and  disgrace.  From 
the  opening  chapter  of  this  composite  history  to 
the  end,  the  subject  is  not  Israel,  nor  Israel's  great 
men,  but  Israel's  God  in  his  dealings  with  Israel. 
It  is  Jehovah  who  calls  reluctant  Moses  to  assume 
the  task  of  emancipating  Israel ;  Jehovah  who 
inspires  the  nation  with  courage  at  the  Red  Sea ; 
Jehovah  who  provides  it  with  both  food  and  guid- 
ance in  the  wilderness ;  Jehovah  who  gives  to  it 
the  bases  of  its  civil  laws  and  civil  liberty ;  Jeho- 
vah who  frees  it  from  the  superstitions  in  which  it 
has  been  reared,  and  into  which  it  afterwards  falls 


48      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF    THE   HEBREWS 

with  irritating  repetitions ;  Jehovah  who  appears 
to  Joshua  and  equips  him  with  courage  for  his 
great  campaigns ;  Jehovah  who  is  the  sole  bond 
of  union  to  this  unorganized  people  during  the 
colonial  period  ;  Jehovah  who  sustains  Saul  when 
Saul  is  loyal,  and  abandons  him  to  defeat  and 
death  when  he  is  disloyal ;  Jehovah  who  summons 
David  from  the  sheepfold  to  the  throne  ;  Jehovah 
who  sends  prophets,  from  Elijah  the  reformer  to 
Isaiah  the  statesman,  to  recover  the  people  from 
their  apostasies,  and  to  coimsel  and  encourage  them 
in  their  national  crises  ;  Jehovah  who  gives  them 
prosperity  when  they  walk  in  his  way,  and  who 
sends  them  adversity  when  they  depart  from  it. 

The  historian  does,  indeed,  narrate  the  deeds  of 
great  men  ;  but  he  so  narrates  them  that  our  atten- 
tion is  fixed,  not  on  the  man  nor  on  the  deed,  but 
on  Jehovah  who  inspires  the  man  to  do  the  deed. 
Moses  was  a  great  statesman,  the  father  of  civil 
liberty  for  all  humanity ;  yet  it  is  not  of  the 
statesman  but  of  the  prophet  who  walked  with 
Jehovah  that  we  think  as  we  read  the  story  of  his 
life.  David  was  a  great  organizer ;  the  essential 
principles  of  his  organization  of  the  state  into  great 
departments  and  of  the  army  into  companies,  regi- 
ments, and  army  corps  we  still  maintain  to-day, 
nearly  thirty  centuries  after  his  death  ;  ^  but  it  is 
not  of  the  great  organizer,  but  of  the  poet  and  of 
his  experience  of  God  in  nature  and  men,  that  we 
think  as  we  read  the  story  of  his  life  and  his 
^  2  Sara,  xviii.  1,  2  ;  1  Chron.  xxvii.  25-34. 


HEBREW  HISTORY  49 

achievements.  Ahab  brought  Israel  to  a  great 
degree  of  prosperity  by  his  skill  and  courage  as  an 
astute  statesman  and  a  brave  captain ;  ^  and  yet  it 
is  of  the  sins  of  Aliab  against  God  and  humanity 
that  we  think  as  we  read  the  story  of  his  reign ; 
not  of  his  statecraft  and  his  military  achievements, 
but  of  his  robbery  of  Naboth.  In  all  this  Biblical 
history  the  moral  element  predominates  over  the 
merely  political,  and  the  religious  over  the  merely 
ethical.  And  yet  the  historian  rarely  if  ever 
formulates  a  dogma  or  draws  a  moral.  He  writes 
not  to  prove  that  "  righteousness  exalteth  a  na- 
tion, and  sin  is  a  reproach  to  any  people ; "  but 
believing  that  this  is  true,  and  believing  that  this 
truth  is  writ  large  in  the  history  of  his  people,  he 
so  writes  the  history  that  his  readers  see  it  recorded 
there,  not  by  his  pen,  but  by  the  events  themselves. 
The  question,  then,  for  the  student  of  Biblical 
history  to  ask,  is  not  whether  all  the  deeds  of  the 
heroes  of  Hebrew  history  were  virtuous,  whether 
Abraham  did  riglit  to  lie,  or  Jephtlia  to  sacri- 
fice his  daughter,  whether  Samson  was  really  a 
hero,  or  David's  adultery  a  pardonable  offense. 
The  historian  recites  the  virtues  of  men  without 
applause,  and  their  vices  without  condemnation. 
He  draws  no  morals  ;  this  he  leaves  to  be  done 
by  the  conscience  of  the  reader.     The  question  is 

^  1  Kings  XX.  See  History  of  Israel,  by  C.  A.  Cornill,  102  ff. ; 
The  Religion  of  Israel,  by  Karl  Budde,  IIG  ff. ;  Hastings's  Bible 
Dictionary,  tit.  Ahab  ;  History  of  the  Jewish  Church,  by  A.  P. 
Stanley,  lect.  xxx. 


50      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

not  wlietliei'  God  commanded  all  that  tbe  ancient 
Hebrews  thought  he  commanded,  or  approved  all 
that  they  thought  he  approved.  The  historian 
recites  their  errors  as  well  as  their  sins.  It  is  not 
whether  all  the  occuri-ences  took  place  as  they  are 
recorded ;  whether  Samson  tied  foxes  or  jackals 
together ;  ^  whether  Elijah  was  fed  by  ravens  or 
Arabians  ;  ^  whether  Elisha  made  the  axe-head  swim 
in  the  water.^  The  value  of  the  history  does  not 
depend  npon  its  scientific  accuracy  in  detailed  in- 
cidents in  this  remote  past.  The  question  to  con- 
sider is  whether  the  historian  is  right  or  wrong  in 
his  interpretation  of  human  history,  whether  God 
is  in  his  world  of  men,  whether  Jehovah  is  to  be 
reckoned  with  in  national  policies,  whether  moral 
forces  are  to  be  taken  account  of  by  wise  men  in 
the  world's  adminstration  ;  or  whether  might 
makes  right  and  God  is  only  on  the  side  of  the 
strong  battalions.  This  question  I  do  not  discuss  ; 
for  it  is  no  part  of  the  object  of  this  volume  to 
show  that  the  view  of  life  taken  by  the  Biblical 
writers  is  correct.  I  only  seek  to  show  what  that 
view  is ;  to  interpret  the  Old  Testament,  not  to 
discuss  its  accuracy.  To  interpret  it  we  must 
understand  first  of  all  the  purpose  of  the  writers ; 
and  the  purpose  of  the  historical  writers  of  the 
Old  Testament  was  not  to  secure  infallible  accuracy 

1  Judg.  XV.  4. 

2  1  Kings  xvii.  4,  6.  See  Robert  Tuck's  Handhooh  of  Biblical 
Difficulties,  p.  439 ;  Kitto's  Bible  Illus.,  vol.  ii.  part  2,  pp.  216- 
220. 

8  2  Kings  vi.  1-7. 


HEBREW  HISTORY  51 

in  dates,  numbers,  statistics,  and  historical  inci- 
dents, but  to  interpret  their  national  history  as 
Jehovah's  dealing  with  his  people.  Did  they  in- 
terpret it  aright  ?  and  does  this  interpretation  give 
us  a  clue  by  which  we  can  interpret  also  the  history 
of  our  own  times  ?  If  so,  the  Bible  history  is  true, 
and  its  truth  is  not  impugned,  and  not  even  a  sus- 
picion is  cast  upon  its  truth,  by  the  conclusion  that 
certain  of  the  incidents  recorded  in  it  are  unhis- 
torical,  and  many  of  the  moral  judgments  which  it 
records  are  to  be  corrected  in  the  light  of  a  later 
moral  development,  and  by  the  standards  of  a  later 
revelation. 


CHAPTER  III 

PREHISTORIC   TRADITIONS   REWRITTEN 

The  principles  respecting  Hebrew  history  which 
were  set  forth  and  illustrated  in  the  preceding 
chapter  are  two.  The  first  j^rinciple  is  that  this 
history  is  a  compilation  from  previously  existing 
materials,  and  that  by  careful  study  it  is  possible 
to  distinguish  in  some  measure  these  different  ma- 
terials, to  separate  the  strand  and  show  the  threads 
of  which  it  is  composed,  and  that  this  task  is  made 
easier  for  us  because  in  the  latter  portion  of  the 
history  two  of  these  strands  are  separated  for  us 
into  two  books  —  the  Book  of  Chronicles,  which  is 
priestly  or  ecclesiastical,  and  the  Book  of  Kings, 
which  is  prophetic.  The  second  principle  is  that 
this  history  is  not  factual  nor  philosophical,  but 
epic ;  that  it  is  not  compiled  by  a  scientific  stu- 
dent whose  aim  it  is  to  give  accurate  information 
as  to  details,  nor  by  a  philosophical  thinker  whose 
aim  it  is  to  enforce  a  theory  of  human  life,  but  by 
a  prophetic  or  poetic  or  dramatic  writer,  who  uses 
the  material  which  he  finds  ready  to  his  hand  for 
the  purpose  of  illustrating  a  certain  phase  or  aspect 
of  human  life,  namely,  that  aspect  which  presents 
itself  to  one  who  believes  that  God  is  in  his  world 


PREHISTORIC    TRADITIONS   REWRITTEN       53 

of  men,  and  who  in  his  observation  of  the  course  of 
human  events  looks  foi'  the  indications  of  a  divine 
presence  guiding  and  directing  them.  The  histor- 
ical book  of  the  Bible  which  affords,  if  not  the 
most  striking  illustration  of  these  two  principles, 
at  least  the  illustration  most  apparent  to  the  Eng- 
lish reader,  is  the  Book  of  Genesis ;  and  this  for 
three  reasons :  first,  because  the  narratives  which 
that  book  contains  appear  on  their  face  to  be  epic 
or  dramatic  rather  than  factual ;  second,  because 
we  are  able  easily  to  separate  the  narratives  of 
which  the  book  is  composed,  and  to  show  that 
there  are  two  or  more  not  always  consistent  ac- 
counts of  the  same  events ;  and,  third,  because  the 
researches  of  archaeologists  have  discovered  in 
other  and  admittedly  older  literature  the  materials 
of  which  the  narratives  might  easily  have  been 
composed.^ 

^  The  student  •who  wishes  to  pursue  more  fully  the  study  of 
the  question  whether  the  historical  books  were  written  by  one 
author,  or  were  compiled  from  a  variety  of  documentary  and  tra- 
ditional sources  by  an  editor  or  editors,  will  find  material  for  the 
purpose  in  the  following  volumes  :  An  Introduction  to  the  Litera- 
ture of  the  Old  Testament,  by  S.  R.  Driver,  D.  D.  ;  the  best  book 
in  the  English  language,  so  far  as  I  know,  to  give  the  student  the 
results  of  modern  scholarship  in  its  analysis  of  the  Old  Testament. 
The  Gemsis  of  Genesis  and  The  Triple  Tradition  of  Exodus,  by 
Professor  B.  W.  Bacon,  D.  D.,  of  the  Yale  Theological  Seminary, 
•which  give  analyses  of  these  two  books  into  their  supposed  con- 
stituent parts.  The  Beginnings  of  History  according  to  the  Bible 
and  the  Traditions  of  Oriental  Peoples,  by  Francis  Lenormant,  Pro- 
fessor of  Archaeology  at  the  National  Library  of  France  ;  to  this 
and  the  following  volume  I  am  indebted  for  the  parallel  traced  in 
this  chapter  between  the  Genesis  tradition  and  one  of  the  Assyrian 


54      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   TUE   HEBREWS 

An  early  tradition,  still  regarded  as  trustworthy 
by  the  traditional  school  of  Biblical  critics,  attrib- 
utes the  Book  of  Genesis  to  Moses.^     If  we  were 

tablets.  The  Chaldcean  Account  of  Genesis,  by  George  Smith  of 
the  Department  of  Oriental  Antiquities  in  the  British  Museum. 
Encyclopoedia  Britannica,  article  Pentateuch,  by  J.  Wellhausen, 
Professor  of  Oriental  Languages,  University  of  Halle.  For  the 
view  of  those  who  maintain  the  single  and  Mosaic  authorship  of 
the  Pentateuch  the  reader  is  referred  to  2'he  Unity  of  the  Book  of 
Genesis  and  the  Higher  Criticism  of  the  Pentateuch,  by  William 
Henry  Green,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  Professor  of  Oriental  and  Old  Testa- 
ment Literature  in  Princeton  Theological  Seminary,  who,  at  the 
time  of  his  death,  was  the  ablest  representative  in  this  country  of 
the  traditional  school.  See,  also.  The  Veracity  of  the  Hexateuch,  by 
Samuel  C.  Bartlett,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  late  President  of  Dartmouth 
College  ;  The  New  Testament  under  Fire,  by  A.  J.  F.  Behreuds, 
D.  D.  ;  and  Anti-Higher  Criticism,  edited  by  L.  W.  Munhall,  M.  A. 
The  two  latter  are  general  in  their  character,  and  are  not  con- 
fined, as  are  the  others,  to  the  problems  of  the  Pentateuch. 

1  "  Is  the  Pentateuch  the  work  of  IMoses  ?  It  is  univer- 
sally conceded  that  this  was  the  traditional  opinion  among  the 
Jews.  To  this  the  New  Testament  bears  the  most  abundant  and 
explicit  testimony."  In  support  of  this  Dr.  Green  refers  to  the 
following  New  Testament  passages  :  ' '  The  Pentateuch  is  by  our 
Lord  called  '  the  book  of  Moses  '  (Mark  xii.  26)  ;  when  it  is  read 
and  preached  the  Apostles  say  that  Moses  is  read  (2  Cor.  iii.  15) 
and  preached  (Acts  xv.  21).  The  Pentateuch  and  the  books  of 
the  prophets,  which  were  read  in  the  worship  of  the  synagogue, 
are  called,  both  by  our  Lord  (Luke  xvi.  29,  31)  and  the  Evange- 
lists (Luke  xxiv.  27),  'Moses  and  the  prophets'  or  '  the  law  of 
Moses  and  the  prophets '  (Luke  xxiv.  44 ;  Acts  xxviii.  23).  Of 
the  injunctions  of  the  Pentateuch  not  only  do  the  Jews  say,  when 
addressing  our  Lord,  'Moses  commanded'  (John  viii.  5),  but  our 
Lord  repeatedly  uses  the  same  form  of  speech  (Matt.  viii.  4  ;  xix. 
7,  8  ;  Mark  i.  44  ;  x.  3  ;  Luke  v.  14),  as  testified  by  three  of  the 
Evangelists.  Of  the  law  in  general  he  says,  '  Moses  gave  the 
law  '  (John  vii.  19),  and  the  Evangelist  echoes,  '  the  law  was  given 
by  Moses  '  (John  i.  17).  And  that  Moses  was  not  only  the  author 
of  the  law,  but  committed  its  precepts  to  writing,  is  affirmed  by 


PREHISTORIC    TRADITIONS   REWRITTEN       55 

to  suppose  tliat  this  tradition  is  correct,  and  that 
the  traditional  Biblical  chronology  were  substan- 
tially accurate,  then  the  Book  of  Genesis  was 
written  about  1450  b.  c.  But,  still  supposing  the 
traditional  chronology  to  be  correct,  this  book  deals 
with  a  period  of  from  two  to  twenty-five  centuries 

the  Jews  (Mark  xii.  19),  and  also  by  our  Lord  (Mark  x.  5),  who 
further  speaks  of  him  as  writing  predictions  respecting'  himself 
(John  V.  46,  47),  and  also  traces  a  narrative  in  the  Pentateuehal 
history  to  him  (Mark  xii.  20)."  The  Higher  Criticism  of  the  Penta- 
teuch, by  William  Henry  Green,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  pp.  32,  33.  On  the 
other  hand,  so  orthodox  a  critic  as  Dr.  Franz  Delitseh  declares 
that  these  references  by  Christ  to  the  books  of  Moses  are  not  con- 
clusive on  the  question  of  authorship.  He  says  (A  New  Commen- 
tary on  Genesis,  vol.  i.  p.  21),  "  In  the  N.  T.  also  the  Pentateuch 
is  called  '  the  book  of  Moses  '  (Mark  xii.  26),  or  just  '  Moses '  (Acts 
XV.  21 ;  2  Cor.  iii.  15)  ;  and  when  injunctions  or  sayings  are  quoted 
from  it  (e.  g.  from  Exodus,  Luke  xx.  37  ;  Leviticus,  Mark  i.  44, 
Rom.  x.  5  ;  Deuteronomy,  Mark  xii.  19,  Rom.  x.  19)  Moses  is 
named  as  the  speaker  and  writer.  For  our  Lord  and  his  apostles 
conceive  of  the  Thorah  as  might  be  expected  of  them  as  members 
of  their  nation :  it  is  to  them  the  work  of  Moses.  They  regard  it 
as  proceeding  from  the  revelation  of  God.  But  it  is  not  yet  God's 
full  and  final  revelation,  hence  they  intentionally  emphasize  the 
human  side  of  its  origin,  without  regard  to  the  directness  or 
indirectness  of  the  authorship  of  Moses,  which  lay  outside  their 
exalted  and  practical  object,  and  was,  moreover,  alien  to  the 
character  of  their  age.  It  is  important  to  us  that  they  too  were 
penetrated  by  the  conviction  that  Moses  was  the  mediator  of  the 
law  through  which  Israel  became  the  people  of  God  ;  but  historico- 
critical  investigation  as  to  his  share  as  author  in  the  composition 
of  the  Pentateuch  is  left  free,  as  far  as  N.  T.  statements  are  con- 
cerned." For  at  least  three  centuries  the  Mosaic  authorship  of 
parts  of  the  Pentateuch  has  been  in  dispute.  Spinoza,  writing 
early  in  the  seventeenth  century  {Spinoza'' s  Works ;  Tractatus 
Theologico-Politieus,  chap,  viii.),  pointed  out  features  in  the 
Pentateuch  that  seem  irreconcilable  with  the  theory  of  Mosaic 
authorship. 


50      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE   OF   THE   HEBREWS 

pi'ior  to  Moses.^  Thus,  even  if  we  accept  the  tra- 
dition which  attributes  the  authorship  of  the  Book 
of  Genesis  to  Moses,  he  has  recorded  in  it  events 
which  occurred  from  two  to  twenty-five  centuries 
before  his  time.  The  question,  therefore,  that 
necessarily  presents  itself  to  the  thoughtfid  reader 
is.  How  did  he  learn  the  facts  the  history  of  which 
he  narrates  ?  Of  course  we  may  suppose  that  they 
were  supernaturally  revealed  to  him.^  But  there 
is  nothing  in  the  narrative  to  suggest  this  sup- 
position, unless  it  be  the  fact  that  we  can  conceive 
no  other  way  in  which  he  could  have  received  in- 
fallible information  concerning  such  events  as  the 
creation  of  the  world  and  the  deluge.  The  writer 
does  not  claim  that  his  narrative  is  a  revelation  ; 
nor  is  this  claim  made  for  him  by  any  subsequent 
Biblical  writer.  He  does  not  say,  as  do  the  later 
prophets,  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord " ;  nor  does  any 
subsequent  sacred  writer  affirm  concerning  these 
Genesis  narratives  that  "the  Lord  spake  unto 
Moses,  saying."  The  only  other  opinion  open  to 
us  is  that  the  writer  or  compiler  of  Genesis  availed 
himself  of  such  material  as  existed  in  his  time,  and 

^  The  creation  is  put  in  the  popular  chronology  at  4004  B.  c, 
the  deluge  at  2948,  the  call  of  Abraham  at  1922,  the  death  of 
Joseph  at  1688.  Of  course  to  the  modern  scholar  these  dates  are 
almost  wholly  hypothetical,  but  that  centuries  elapsed  between 
the  event,  whatever  it  was,  which  gave  rise  to  the  narrative  of  the 
deluge,  and  the  writing  of  the  narrative,  is  questioned  by  none. 

^  For  an  admirable  pictorial  representation  of  the  way  in  which 
the  story  of  the  Creation  might  have  been  revealed  to  Moses,  see 
Hugh  Miller's  Testimony  of  the  Rocks,  lecture  iv. :  The  Mosaic 
Vision  of  Creation. 


PREHISTORIC   TRADITIONS   REWRITTEN       57 

that  he  used  it  with  greater  or  less  scientific  and 
critical  discrimination  in  preparing  his  history  of 
this  prehistoric  period. 

It  is  true  that  it  has  been  suggested  that  the 
actors  in  the  events  recorded  in  Genesis  wrote 
accounts  of  those  events,  and  that  these  narratives 
written  by  contemporaries  and  eyewitnesses  were 
handed  down  from  generation  to  generation  until 
they  came  into  the  hands  of  Moses.  When  this 
hypothetical  process  of  autobiography  began,  it  is 
impossible  even  to  surmise.  It  must  suffice  here 
to  say  that,  even  if  we  were  to  suppose  that  writing 
was  an  art  known  to  Adam,  and  that  this  hypo- 
thetical collection  of  manuscript  biographies  began 
with  him,  we  shovild  get  as  a  result  only  one  form 
of  a  documentary  hypothesis,  since  upon  this  theory 
the  Book  of  Genesis  would  be  compiled  from  pre- 
existing documents,  which,  on  the  possible  but 
certainly  unsubstantiated  theory,  had  been  with  an 
almost  miraculous  care  prepared  and  preserved  for 
the  use  of  the  final  editor.  It  is  thus,  even  on  the 
hypothesis  of  the  traditionalist,  almost  certain  that 
the  Book  of  Genesis  is  composed  of  preexisting 
materials.  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  add  that  he 
who  disregards  ancient  tradition  as  of  little  scien- 
tific authority  does  not  think  that  the  Book  of 
Genesis  was  written  by  Moses.  He  puts  it  at  a 
much  later  date  than  1450  b.  c.  I  am  inclined  to 
think  that  it  was  the  last  written  of  the  historical 
books  of  the  Old  Testament ;  that,  after  the  history 
of  the  ancient   Hebrews,  which   begins  with   the 


68      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

Exodus  and  ends  with  the  Restoration,  had  been 
substantially  completed,  the  Book  of  Genesis,  or 
the  Book  of  Origins,  —  for  such  is  the  meaning  of 
the  word,  —  was  compiled  by  some  unknown  editor 
as  an  introduction  to  the  history  which  he  or  some 
one  before  him  had  compiled  ;  and  that  in  so  doing 
he  rewrote  the  current  traditions  of  this  prehistoric 
period,  much  as  Alfred  Tennyson  rewrote  the  Ar- 
thurian legends  in  the  "  Idylls  of  the  King  ";  and 
that  he  did  this  for  the  purpose  of  emphasizing 
the  truth  that  God  is  in  his  world.  Not  in  any 
scientific  accuracy  in  the  narratives,  are  we  to  look 
for  the  evidence  of  prophetic  inspiration,  but  in 
their  witness  to  the  faith  of  this  prophetic  people 
in  the  presence  and  rule  of  God  in  his  world.  And 
that  inspiration  is  equally  to  be  discerned  in  the 
narrative,  whether  we  suppose  it  is  composed  of 
autobiographies  by  eye-witnesses  or  of  current 
myths  and  legends,  whether  it  was  compiled  by 
Moses  about  somewhere  between  1250  b.  c.  and 
1450  B.  C.  or  by  an  unknown  prophet  six,  eight, 
or  ten  centuries  later.^ 

1  "  The  first  chapters  of  Genesis  constitute  a '  Book  of  the  Begin- 
nings,' in  accordance  with  the  stories  handed  down  in  Israel  from 
generation  to  generation,  ever  since  the  times  of  the  Patriarchs, 
which,  in  all  its  essential  affirmations,  is  parallel  with  the  state- 
ments of  the  sacred  books  from  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates  and 
Tigris.  But,  if  this  is  so,  I  shall  perhaps  be  asked,  where  then  do 
you  find  the  divine  inspiration  of  the  writers  who  made  this  archce- 
ology  —  that  suijernatural  help  by  which,  as  a  Christian,  you  must 
believe  them  to  have  been  guided  ?  Where  ?  In  the  absolutely 
new  spirit  which  animates  their  narration,  even  though  the  form 
of  it  may  have  remained  in  almost  every  respect  the  same  aa 


PREHISTORIC    TRADITIONS   REWRITTEN        59 

It  seems,  then,  certain  that,  by  whomsoever  the 
Book  of  Genesis  was  compiled,  it  is  composed  of 
material  which  this  compiler  found  ready  to  his 
hand.  What  is  the  character  of  this  material? 
Was  it  composed  by  contemporaneous  historians  ? 
and  is  its  value  in  its  scientific  accuracy  ?  Or  did 
it  grow  up  out  of  the  observation,  the  imagination, 
and  the  thought  of  the  race?  and  is  its  value  in 
the  moral  lessons  of  which  it  is  the  vehicle  ?  In 
endeavoring  to  find  the  answer  to  these  questions, 
let  us  turn,  in  the  first  place,  to  the  narratives 
themselves. 

The  first  chapter  of  Genesis  gives  an  account  of 
the  creation  of  the  world.  It  is  "  a  sublime  epic 
of  creation,"  a  "hymn  of  praise  to  the  Creator." 


among  the  neighboring;  nations.  It  is  the  same  narrative,  and  in 
it  the  same  episodes  succeed  one  another  in  like  manner ;  and  yet 
one  would  he  blind  not  to  perceive  that  the  signification  has 
become  altogether  different.  The  exuberant  polytheism  which 
encumbers  these  stories  among  the  Chaldseans  has  been  carefully 
eliminated,  to  give  place  to  the  severest  monotheism.  What 
formerly  expressed  naturalistic  conceptions  of  a  singular  grossness 
here  becomes  the  garb  of  moral  truths  of  the  most  exalted  and 
most  purely  spiritual  order.  The  essential  features  of  the  form 
of  the  tradition  have  been  preserved,  and  yet  between  the  Bible 
and  the  sacred  books  of  Chaldsea  there  is  all  the  distance  of  one 
of  the  most  tremendous  revolutions  which  have  ever  been  effected 
in  human  beliefs.  Herein  consists  the  miracle,  and  it  is  none  the 
less  amazing  for  being  transposed.  Others  may  seek  to  explain 
this  by  the  simple  natural  progress  of  the  conscience  of  humanity  ; 
for  myself,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  find  in  it  the  effect  of  a  super- 
natural intervention  of  Divine  Providence,  and  I  bow  before  the 
God  who  inspired  the  Law  and  the  Prophets."  The  Beginnings  of 
History,  by  Francois  Lenormant,  preface,  pp.  xvi.,  xvii. 


60     LIFE  AND  LITERATURE   OF   THE  HEBREWS 

A  comparison  of  this  chapter  with  such  passages 
as  Psahii  xxxiii.  6-8 ;  civ.  ;  or  Prov.  viii.  24-30, 
will  make  clear  to  the  English  reader  its  poetical 
character.  Its  language  is  not  scientific,  accurate, 
technical ;  it  is  figurative,  poetic,  the  language  of 
imagination.  God  broods  upon  the  face  of  the 
water  like  a  wind  playing  upon  its  surface  ;  he 
calls,  and  light  comes  forth  out  of  the  darkness ; 
he  gives  proper  names  to  both  light  and  darkness, 
calls  one  Day,  the  other  Night ;  he  erects  a  firma- 
ment ^  to  divide  the  waters  above  from  the  waters 
beneath ;  he  again  divides  the  waters  belov/  from  the 
land,  and  gives  proper  names  to  both  earth  and  seas ; 
he  speaks,  and  in  the  heavens  above  lights  appear 
to  illumine  the  earth.  All  this  is  language  of 
poetry  and  of  picture  ;  this  is  no  scientific  treatise 
or  cosmogony  ;  it  is  a  poet's  sublime  epic  ;  a  psean 
to  the  Creator  of  the  world.^     Whether  it  agrees 

^  See  Ruskin's  Modern  Painters,  part  v.  chapter  vi. 

2  "  Sometimes  the  prose  of  the  Bible  is  equal  to  the  best  poetry, 
and  blends  truth  and  beauty  in  perfect  harmony.  It  approaches 
also,  in  touching  the  highest  themes,  the  rythmical  form  of  Hebrew 
poetry,  and  may  be  arranged  according  to  the  parallelism  of 
members.  Moses  was  a  poet  as  well  as  a  historian.  ...  In  this 
wider  sense  the  Bible  begins  and  ends  with  poetry.  The  retro- 
spective vision  of  the  first  creation,  and  the  prospective  vision  of 
the  new  heavens  and  new  earth,  are  presented  in  language  which 
rises  to  the  summit  of  poetic  beauty  and  power.*'  Commentary  on 
the  Holy  Scriptures,  by  J.  P.  Lange,  vol.  vii.  of  Old  Testaiuent, 
on  Job ;  from  Gen.  Int.  to  the  Poetical  Books,  by  Philip  Schaff, 
p.  ix. 

"This  sublime  Epic  of  Creation,  with  its  boldly  figurative 
imagery  and  poetic  grandeur  of  conception  and  expression,  has 
been  subjected  to  a  style  of  interpretation,  suited  only  to  a  plain 


PREHISTORIC   TRADITIONS   REWRITTEN       61 

with  the  latest  conclusions  of  scientists  concerning 
the  order  of  the  processes  of  evolution  by  which 
the  world  was  developed  from  star-dust  is  a  ques- 
tion as  little  pertinent  to  the  chapter  as  would  be 
the  question  whether  geographical  exploration  indi- 
cates any  locality  for  the  Purgatory  and  the  Para- 
dise of  Dante. -^ 

The  second  and  third  chapters,  containing  ac- 
counts of  the  creation  and  fall  of  man,  are  equally 
characterized,  not  by  the  spirit  of  a  scientific  inves- 
tigator into  the  problems  of  anthropology,  but  by 
a  naive,  childlike,  and  yet  divine  imagination.  Man 
is  fashioned,  sculptor-like,  out  of  clay,  and  a  breath 
of  life  is  breathed  into  him.  The  animals  are 
brought  to  him  to  be  named  ;  among  them  all  there 
is  no  one  fit  to  be  a  companion  to  him.  So,  while 
he  sleeps,  a  rib  is  taken  from  him,^  and  from  the 

and  literal  record  of  the  ordinary  occurrences  of  life.  Hence  not 
only  its  true  spirit,  but  its  profound  teachings,  have  been  mis- 
conceived and  misinterpreted  ;  and  its  exhibition  of  the  mysteries 
of  creative  power,  which  science  traces  in  its  own  observation  of 
Nature,  have  been  confounded  with  popular  misapprehensions, 
irreconcilable  with  the  well-known  facts  of  science."  The  Book  of 
Genesis,  with  Explanatory  Notes,  by  Thomas  J.  Conant,  p.  xvi. 

^  The  correspondence  is  undoubtedly  extraordinary  —  "  Every 
great  feature  in  the  structure  of  the  planet  corresponds  with  the 
order  of  events  narrated  in  the  sacred  history."  Professor  SQli- 
man,  Outline  of  Geological  Lectures  appended  to  BakeweWs  Geology, 
p.  67,  note.  But  as  an  exact  scientific  account  of  the  creation  it 
is  not,  in  all  minor  details,  strictly  accurate.  See  Science  and 
IJebreiv  Tradition,  essays  iv.  and  v.,  T.  II.  Huxley. 

^  The  poetic  character  of  this  conception  is  artistically  illus- 
trated by  Ghiberti  in  the  bronze  doors  at  Florence,  in  which  he 
represents  the  angels  bringing  Eve  to  the  Creator,  from  Adam's 


f 

G2      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

rib  a  woman  is  formed.  Husband  and  wife,  they 
are  put  into  a  garden  ;  the  great  world  lies  outside. 
In  the  garden  are  two  trees  of  which  they  may  not 
eat.  The  fruit  of  one  will  give  them  a  knowledge 
of  good  and  evil ;  the  fruit  of  the  other  will  endow 
them  with  immortality.  A  serpent  comes  into  the 
garden,  not  crawling  on  his  belly,  but  erect  — 
though  how  erect  it  is  difficult  to  conceive.  He 
persuades  the  too  confiding  woman  ;  she  persuades 
the  too  pliant  man  ;  they  both  eat  the  fruit  of  the 
first  tree,  discover  that  they  are  naked,  lose  their 
childhood  innocence,  are  ashamed,  make  for  them- 
selves aprons,  are  afraid  of  their  God  whose  voice 
they  hear  in  the  cool  of  the  evening  as  he  walks  in 
the  garden,  and  try  to  hide  themselves  from  him 
among  the  trees.  Like  children  discovered  in  a 
fault,  they  come  when  summoned,  excuse  themselves 
in  vain  by  casting  the  fault,  the  man  on  the  woman, 
the  woman  on  the  serjaent,  and  are  cast  out  from 
the  garden  because  they  have  become  as  a  god  by 
knowing  good  and  evil,  and  lest  they  become  still 
more  as  a  god  by  being  immortal.  How  this  gar- 
den is  so  fenced  in  from  the  outer  world  that  nei- 
ther they  nor  their  descendants  can  ever  return  to 
it,  nor  even  discover  where  it  is,  is  left  to  conjec- 
ture, as  surely  no  scientific  writer  would  have  left 
it.  The  garden  disappears  absolutely  from  the 
face  of  the  earth,  and  never  again  is  mentioned  in 

side.  See  Mrs.  Jameson's  History  of  our  Lord  in  Art,  i.  96,  97. 
As  poetry  the  idea  is  beautiful ;  as  history,  both  incredible  and 
repulsive. 


PREniSTORIC   TRADITIONS   REWRITTEN       63 

the  sacred  history,  or  in  any  other.  The  man  and 
his  wife  go  out  into  the  wiklerness  to  fight  life's 
battle  with  thistle-bearing  nature ;  children  are 
born  to  them ;  cities  are  discovered  in  the  wilder- 
ness :  whence  come  they  ?  Cain  is  married  :  where 
did  he  get  his  wife  ?  The  question  is  an  oft-repeated 
one  —  foolish  if  this  story  is  imagination,  not  fool- 
ish if  it  is  or  purports  to  be  a  scientific  history  of 
the  origin  of  the  human  race. 

It  is  absolutely  certain  that  if  one  were  to  come 
upon  this  story  in  Greek,  Latin,  or  Scandinavian 
literature,  one  would  not  hesitate  a  moment  how  to 
classify  it.  This,  he  would  say,  is  a  myth  of  won- 
derful beauty  :  What  is  its  significance  ?  What 
does  it  mean  ?  The  scientific  or  literary  student  of 
the  Old  Testament  sees  no  reason  for  refusing  to 
apply  the  same  standards  to  this  story  in  Hebrew 
literature  which  he  would  apply  if  he  found  it  in 
any  other.  He  reaches  without  hesitation  the  same 
conclusion,  and  addresses  himself  to  the  same  ques- 
tion :  AVhy  did  the  writer  tell  this  story  ?  What 
life-lesson  is  it  intended  to  convey  ?  To  him  it  is 
like  Tennyson's  story  of  the  Holy  Grail.  As  in 
the  one  case  he  wastes  no  time  in  answering  the 
question  whether  the  cup  out  of  which  Christ  drank 
was  still  in  existence  in  Arthur's  time,  or  whether, 
if  it  were,  a  search  for  it  would  be  profitable,  but 
in  the  poem  sees  a  beautiful  vehicle  of  a  yet  more 
beautiful  spiritual  lesson,  so  in  this  prose-poem  of 
the  first  sin  and  its  consequences  he  sees  no  history 
of  the  origin  of  evil,  no  philosophy  of  sin  and  its 


64      LIFE   AND   LTTEIIATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

historic  cause,  nor  does  he  care  to  inquire  where 
was  this  fabled  garden  of  innocence,  or  how,  scien- 
tifically, one  fruit  could  possibly  endow  with  im- 
mortality a  human  body  or  another  fruit  could 
endow  with  godlike  knowledge  of  moral  distinc- 
tions a  human  soul ;  he  sees  in  the  story  a  casket, 
opens  it,  and  finds  within  a  portraiture  of  the  life- 
drama  of  sin,  fall,  and  redemption  in  miniature. 

The  same  epic  character  is  scarcely  less  appar- 
ent in  the  rest  of  Genesis,  which  is  composed  of  a 
series  of  narratives  the  value  of  which  depends, 
not  upon  their  scientific  answer  to  historical  pro- 
blems, but  upon  their  naive  dramatic  quality  and 
their  vital  human  interest.  Such  are  its  stories  of 
the  marriage  of  the  sons  of  God  to  the  daughters 
of  men  ;  of  the  deluge,  in  the  mind  of  the  narrator 
clearly  overspreading  the  whole  habitable  globe  ;  of 
an  ark  large  enough  and  seaworthy  enough  to  con- 
tain specimens  of  the  whole  animal  race,  who  for 
seven  months  live  in  accord,  a  happy  family  ;  of 
Abraham  receiving  Jehovah's  angelic  messengers 
and  feeding  them  at  his  tent ;  of  Jacob  with  his 
treachery  to  his  father  and  its  penalty,  with  his  ro- 
mantic courtship  and  its  reward ;  of  Joseph,  the 
dreamer,  in  the  pit,  in  the  prison,  in  the  palace. 
These  stories  we  study,  not  for  the  purpose  of  secur- 
ing historical  data  on  which  we  can  rely  with  un- 
failing certainty,  but  for  the  interest  which  they 
awaken  and  for  the  life-lessons  which  they  convey. 
They  are  neither  factual  nor  philosophical ;  neither 
written  to  give  scientific  information   concerning 


PREHISTORIC   TRADITIONS  REWRITTEN       Go 

the  past  nor  to  bear  witness  to  some  pliilosoj)liical 
theory  which  the  writer  desires  to  maintain ;  they 
are  written  by  one  interested  in  life  and  for  the 
purpose  of  conveying  to  others  the  interest  which 
he  himself  possesses. 

Thus  the  literary  or  scientific  student  of  the  Bible 
finds  in  the  Book  of  Genesis  a  clear  illustration  and 
a  cogent  confirmation  of  the  princii)les  which  I 
have  stated  in  the  preceding  chapter.  He  finds 
this  book  composed  of  narratives  which  are  epic  or 
dramatic  in  their  character,  and  it  is  quite  clear 
that  these  narratives  existed  in  some  form  long 
prior  to  the  earliest  date  at  which  the  Book  of  Gene- 
sis could  have  been  composed  or  compiled. 

But,  further  than  this,  his  analysis  makes  clear 
to  him  the  constituent  elements  of  which  the  book 
is  compiled.  It  shows  him  unmistakably  in  many 
instances  that  the  narrative  which  he  reads  in  the 
book  is  composed  of  two  or  more  narratives,  which 
previously  existed,  and  which  have  been  harmo- 
nized and  woven  together  in  one  narrative  by  the 
editor  or  author  of  Genesis.  That  there  are  two 
such  accounts  of  the  creation  will  appear  evident 
to  most  readers  of  the  English  Bible.  The  first 
account,  contained  in  the  first  chapter  and  the  first 
three  verses  of  the  second  chapter,  lays  stress  on 
the  creation  of  the  physical  globe,  represents  God 
as  creating  man,  male  and  female,  in  one  act  of 
creation,  as  making  subject  to  them  the  powers  of 
nature  and  the  various  animal  races,  and  as  conse- 
crating the  seventh  or  Sabbath  day  at  the  close  of 


66      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

the  whole  creative  period.  The  second  account, 
beffinninjj  with  the  fourth  verse  of  the  second 
chapter  of  Genesis,  passes  by  the  creation  of  the 
heavens  and  the  earth  with  a  mere  alhision,  gives 
in  detail  the  creation  of  man,  represents  the  crea- 
tion of  woman  as  a  companion  for  man  as  a  sub- 
sequent event,  if  not  an  afterthought,  and  makes 
this  whole  story  introductory  to  the  drama  of  a 
first  sin  and  the  consequent  expulsion  from  the 
garden. 

It  is  not  equally  apparent  to  the  casual  student 
that  there  are  two  accounts  of  the  deluge,  because 
those  two  accounts  have  been  by  the  editor  woven 
into  one ;  but  modern  scholars  have  shown  that 
it  is  possible  to  separate  this  narrative  into  its  con- 
stituent parts.  If  they  have  not  proved  that  the 
narrative  is  composed  of  two  preexisting  narra- 
tives, they  have  at  least  demonstrated  that  it  may 
have  been  so  composed.  I  can  best  exhibit  this 
demonstration  by  repeating  here  the  two  stories  of 
the  deluge,  as  the  modern  scholar  discovers  them 
in  the  one  story  which  we  now  possess :  ^ 

ELOHIST    NARRATIVE    OF    THE    DELUGE 

These  are  the  generations  of  Noah.  Noah  was  a 
righteous  man,  (and)  perfect  in  his  generations  :  Noah 
walked  with  God.  And  Noah  begat  three  sons,  Shem, 
Ham,  and  Japheth.  And  the  earth  was  corrui^t  before 
God,  and  the  earth  was  filled  with  violence.     And  God 

^  These  two  accounts  are  taken  from  the  Analysis  of  Genesis 
in  Genesis  of  Genesis,  Professor  B.  W.  Bacon,  p.  109. 


PREHISTORIC   TRADITIONS   REWRITTEN       67 

saw  the  earth,  and,  hehohl,  it  was  corrupt ;  for  all  flesh 
had  corrupted  his  way  upon  the  earth. 

And  God  said  unto  Noah,  The  end  of  all  flesh  is 
come  before  me ;  for  the  earth  is  filled  with  violence 
through  them ;  and,  behold,  I  AviU  destroy  them  ^\i\h. 
the  earth.  Make  thee  an  ark  of  gopher  wood :  rooms 
shalt  thou  make  in  the  ark,  and  shalt  pitch  it  within 
and  without  with  pitch.  And  this  is  how  thou  shalt 
make  it :  The  length  of  the  ark  tlu-ee  hundred  cubits, 
the  breadth  of  it  fifty  cubits,  and  the  height  of  it 
thirty  cubits.  A  light  shalt  thou  make  to  the  ark, 
and  to  a  cubit  shalt  thou  finish  it  upward  ;  and  the 
door  of  the  ark  shalt  thou  set  in  the  side  thereof ; 
with  lower,  second,  and  third  stories  shalt  thou  make  it. 
And  I,  behold,  I  do  bring  the  flood  of  waters  upon  the 
earth,  to  destroy  aU  flesh,  wherein  is  the  breath  of  life, 
from  under  the  heaven  ;  everything  that  is  in  the  earth 
shall  die.  But  I  will  establish  my  covenant  with  thee ; 
and  thou  shalt  come  into  the  ark,  thou,  and  thy  sons, 
and  thy  wife,  and  thy  sons'  mves  with  thee.  And  of 
every  living  thing  of  aU  flesh,  two  of  every  sort  shalt 
thou  bring  into  the  ark,  to  keep  them  alive  with  thee ; 
they  shall  be  male  and  female.  Of  the  fowl  after  their 
kind,  and  of  the  cattle  after  their  kind,  of  every  creep- 
ing thing  of  the  ground  after  its  kind,  two  of  every  sort 
shall  come  unto  thee  to  keep  them  alive.  And  take 
thou  unto  thee  of  all  food  that  is  eaten,  and  gather  it  to 
thee ;  and  it  shall  be  for  food  for  thee,  and  for  them. 
Thus  did  Noah ;  according  to  aU  that  God  commanded 
him,  so  did  he. 

And  Noah  was  six  hundred  years  old  when  the  flood 
of  waters  was  upon  the  earth. 

In  the  six  hundredth  year  of  Noah's  life,  in  the  second 


68      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

month,  on  the  seventeenth  day  of  the  month,  on  the  same 
day  were  all  the  fountains  of  the  great  deep  hi-oken  up, 
and  the  windows  of  heaven  were  opened. 

In  the  self-same  day  entered  Noah,  and  Shem,  and 
Ham,  and  Jajjheth,  the  sons  of  Noah,  and  Noah's  wife, 
and  the  three  wives  of  liis  sons  with  them,  into  the  ark ; 
they,  and  every  beast  after  its  kind,  and  all  the  cattle 
after  their  kind,  and  every  creeping  thing  that  creepeth 
upon  the  earth  after  its  kind,  and  every  fowl  after  its 
kind,  every  bird  of  every  sort.  And  they  went  in  unto 
Noah  into  the  ark,  two  and  two  of  all  flesh  wherein  is 
the  breath  of  life.  And  they  that  went  in,  went  in  male 
and  female  of  all  flesh,  as  God  commanded  him  :  And 
the  flood  was  forty  days  upon  the  earth.  And  the  waters 
prevailed,  and  increased  greatly  upon  the  earth  ;  and  the 
ark  went  upon  the  face  of  the  waters.  And  the  waters 
prevailed  exceedingly  upon  the  earth  ;  and  all  the  high 
mountains  that  were  under  the  whole  heaven  were  cov- 
ered. Fifteen  cubits  upward  did  the  water  prevail ; 
and  the  mountains  were  covered.  And  all  flesh  died 
that  moved  upon  the  earth,  both  fowl,  and  cattle,  and 
beast,  and  every  creeping  thing  that  creepeth  upon  the 
earth,  and  every  man.  And  the  waters  prevailed  upon 
the  earth  an  hundred  and  fifty  days. 

JAHVIST    NARRATIVE    OF    THE    DELUGE 

And  it  came  to  pass,  when  men  began  to  multiply  on 
the  face  of  the  ground,  and  daughters  were  born  unto 
them,  that  the  sons  of  God  saw  the  daughters  of  men 
that  they  were  fair ;  and  they  took  them  wives  of  all 
that  they  chose.  And  Jahweh  said,  My  spirit  shall  not 
strive  with  man  forever,  for  that  he  also  is  flesh :  yet 
shaU  his  days  be  an  hundred  and  twenty  years.     The 


PREHISTORIC   TRADITIONS   REWRITTEN       G9 

Nephilim  were  in  the  earth  in  those  days,  and  also  after 
that,  when  the  sons  of  God  came  in  unto  the  daughters 
of  men,  and  they  bare  children  to  them :  the  same  were 
the  mighty  men  which  were  of  old,  the  men  of  renown. 
And  Jahweh  saw  that  the  \vickedness  of  man  was  great 
in  the  earth,  and  that  eveiy  imagination  of  the  thoughts 
of  his  heart  was  only  evil  continually.  And  it  repented 
Jahweh  that  he  had  made  man  on  the  earth,  and  it 
grieved  him  at  his  heart.  And  Jahweh  said,  I  will 
destroy  man  whom  I  have  created  from  the  face  of 
the  ground ;  both  man,  and  beast,  and  creeping  tiling, 
and  fowl  of  the  air ;  for  it  repenteth  me  that  I  have 
made  them.  But  Noah  found  gi-ace  in  the  eyes  of 
Jahweh. 

And  Jahweh  said  unto  Noah,  Come  thou  and  all  thy 
house  into  the  ark ;  for  thee  have  I  seen  righteous  before 
me  in  this  generation.  Of  every  clean  beast  thou  shalt 
take  to  thee  seven  and  seven,  the  male  and  his  female ; 
and  of  the  beasts  that  are  not  clean  two,  the  male  and 
his  female ;  of  the  fowl  also  of  the  air,  seven  and  seven, 
male  and  female :  to  keep  seed  alive  upon  the  face  of 
all  the  earth.  For  yet  seven  days,  and  I  will  cause  it 
to  rain  upon  the  earth  forty  days  and  forty  nights  ;  and 
every  living  thing  that  I  have  made  will  I  destroy  from 
off  the  face  of  the  ground.  And  Noah  did  according 
unto  all  that  Jahweh  connuanded  him. 

And  Noah  went  in,  and  his  sons,  and  his  mfe,  and 
his  sons'  wives  with  him,  into  the  ark,  because  of  the 
waters  of  the  flood.  Of  clean  beasts,  and  of  beasts  that 
are  not  clean,  and  of  fowls,  and  of  everytliing  that 
creepeth  upon  the  ground,  there  went  in  two  and  two 
unto  Noah  into  the  ark,  male  and  female,  as  God  com- 
manded Noah.    Ajid  Jahweh  shut  him  in.    And  it  came 


70      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

to  pass,  after  the  seven  clays,  that  the  waters  of  the  flood 
were  upon  the  earth.  And  the  rain  was  ujjon  the  earth 
forty  days  and  forty  nights.  And  the  waters  increased, 
and  bare  up  the  ark,  and  it  was  lift  up  above  the  earth. 
All  in  whose  nostrils  was  the  breath  of  life,  of  all  that 
was  in  the  dry  land,  died.  And  every  living  tiling  was 
destroyed  which  was  upon  the  face  of  the  ground,  both 
men,  and  cattle,  and  creeping  thing,  and  fowl  of  the 
heaven  ;  and  they  were  destroyed  from  the  earth  ;  and 
Noah  only  was  left,  and  they  that  were  with  him  in 
the  ark. 

So  complete  are  these  two  accounts  that  it  is 
probable  that  if  on  a  Sunday  morning  any  clergy- 
man were  to  read  either  one  from  the  Bible,  a 
considerable  proportion  of  his  congregation  would 
not  know  that  he  had  not  read  the  entire  Biblical 
account.  And  yet  in  these  parallel  narratives,  as 
here  printed,  nothing  in  either  account  is  borrowed 
from  the  other ;  both  are  to  be  found  entire  in  the 
one  Biblical  narrative.  It  is  true,  as  I  have  said, 
that  this  fact  does  not  demonstrate  that  the  Biblical 
narrative  was  in  fact  composed  of  two  independent 
and  preexistent  narratives ;  it  only  demonstrates 
that  it  may  have  been  so  composed.^  But  when 
we  reflect  that  there  are  clearly  two  accounts  of 
the  creation ;  that  the  subsequent  history  in  the 
Bible  can  be  separated  into  two  narratives,  much 

^  Professor  William  Henry  Green  of  Princeton  has  ingeniously 
analysed  the  parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son  into  two  continuous 
narratives,  in  order  to  show  that  the  possibility  of  such  a  division 
of  a  continuous  narrative  is  not  of  itself  a  demonstration  of  its 
composite  character.     See  Anti-Higher  Criticism,  p.  66. 


PREHISTORIC    TRADITIONS   REWRITTEN       71 

as  the  story  of  the  dehige  is  here  separated,  though 
not  generally  as  clearly ;  that  the  separation  is 
made  for  us  by  the  historians  themselves  in  the 
later  history  of  Israel,  in  the  Books  of  Kings  and 
of  Chronicles ;  that  throughout  the  entire  Biblical 
history  the  distinctions  notable  in  these  narratives 
can  be  discerned ;  that  one  is  characterized  by  the 
priestly  and  the  other  by  the  prophetic  spirit ; 
that  it  is  by  such  compilations  that  most  Oriental 
histories  are  composed ;  and  that,  finally,  there  is 
only  the  traditional  belief  as  to  the  origin  and 
authorship  of  the  Biblical  books  to  counteract 
these  cumulative  considerations  —  if  we  adopt  the 
literary  or  scientific  method  of  Bible  study,  we 
shall  almost  certainly  accept  the  conclusion  of  the 
modern  or  scientific  student  that  the  Bible  narra- 
tives, as  we  now  possess  them,  have  been  composed 
in  the  manner  here  illustrated  from  preexisting 
material,  though  the  preexisting  material  cannot 
always  be  as  easily  discriminated  as  in  these  early 
Genesis  narratives. 

This  opinion  is  further  confirmed  by  the  fact  that 
the  archaeologists  have  discovered,  in  a  literature 
which  dates  prior  to  the  time  of  Moses,  accounts 
of  the  creation,  the  temptation  and  fall  of  man, 
the  tower  of  Babel  and  consequent  dispersion,  and 
the  Deluge,  which  differ  very  radically  in  their 
spirit,  but  not  very  radically  in  their  historical  or 
scientific  details,  from  the  Genesis  accounts.  From 
data  not  necessary  to  go  into  here,  the  scholars  fix 
the  date  of  the  Assyrian  tablets  containing  these 


72      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

legends  as  from  1500  b.  c.  to  2000  b.  c.^  Similar 
accounts,  dating  so  far  back  in  history  that  their 
age  is  wholly  problematical,  are  to  be  found  in  the 
tradition  of  other  nations.  One  legend  copied  here 
from  an  Assyrian  tablet,  as  deciphered  by  George 
Smith,  may  suffice  as  an  illustration  of  this  prehis- 
toric material  of  other  nations,  much  of  which  was 
certainly  in  existence  before  the  time  when  Genesis 
could  have  been  written. 

THE    ASSYRIAN    STORY    OF    THE    DELUGE 

1.  The  surface  of  the  earth  is  swept. 

2.  It  destroyed  all  life  from  the  face  of  the  earth. 

3.  The   strong   deluge   over   the   people    reached   to 
heaven. 

4.  Brother  saw  not  his  brother,  they  did  not  know 
the  people.     In  heaven 

5.  the  gods  feared  the  tempest  and 

6.  sought  refuge  ;  they  ascended  to  the  heaven  of  Anu. 

7.  The  gods  like  dogs        in  di'oves  prostrate. 

19.  Six  days  and  nights 

20.  passed,  the  wind,  deluge,  and  storm  overwhelmed. 

21.  On  the  seventh  day  in  its  coui'se  was  calmed  the 
storm  and  all  the  deluge 

22.  wliich  had  destroyed  like  an  earthquake, 

23.  quieted.    The  sea  he  caused  to  dry,  and  the  wind 
and  deluge  ended. 

24.  I  perceived  the  sea  making  a  tossing ; 

25.  and  the  whole  of  mankind  turned  to  corruption, 

26.  like  reeds  the  corpses  floated. 

^  See    The    Chaldcean  Account   of  Genesis,  by  George  Smith, 
chaps,  i.  and  ii. 


PREniSTORIC   TRADITIONS   REWRITTEN       73 

27.  I  opened  the  window,  and  the  light  broke  over 
my  face. 

28.  it  passed.     I  sat  down  and  wept. 

38.  I  sent  forth  a  dove  and  it  left.  The  dove  went 
and  turned,  and 

39.  a  resting-place  it  did  not  find,  and  it  returned. 

40.  I  sent  forth  a  swallow  and  it  left.  The  swallow 
went  and  turned,  and 

41.  a  resting-place  it  did  not  find,  and  it  returned. 

42.  I  sent  forth  a  raven  and  it  left. 

43.  The  raven  went,  and  the  decrease  of  the  water  it 
saw,  and 

44.  It  did  eat,  it  swam  and  wandered  away,  and  did 
not  return. 

45.  I  sent  the  animals  forth  to  the  four  winds,  I 
poured  out  a  libation. 

46.  I  built  an  altar  on  the  peak  of  the  mountain. 

The  careful  reader  will  discern  in  this  narrative 
the  historical  resemblance  and  the  spiritual  contrast 
to  the  narrative  in  Genesis.  In  both  are  the  flood, 
the  earthquake,  the  wholesale  destruction  of  life, 
the  dove,  the  raven,  the  mountain  peak,  the  altar, 
and  the  sacrifice ;  and  it  may  be  assumed  that  in 
the  hiatus  between  line  7  and  line  19  in  the  As- 
syrian account  there  has  been  some  reference  to  a 
boat  or  ark  in  which  the  narrator  has  been  pre- 
served and  from  which  he  subsequently  sends  forth 
the  birds.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  in  the  Hebrew 
account  God  sends  the  flood  upon  the  earth  as  a 
punishment  for  sin ;  in  the  Assyrian  accoimt  the 
moral  element  appears  to  be  whoUy  lacking,  and 


74      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

the  gods  themselves  flee  terrified  to  the  heavens  for 
refuge  from  the  storm  which  they  cannot  control. 
It  is  in  this  spiritual  significance  of  the  narrative, 
not  in  its  scientific  or  historical  accuracy,  that  its 
value  inheres.  The  hypothesis  that  the  unknown 
writer  of  Genesis  took  these  early  legends  and  re- 
wrote them,  writing  God  into  them,  or  that  the 
people  retold  them  with  the  national  consciousness 
of  God  wrought  into  them,  is  far  more  probable 
and  quite  as  spiritual  as  the  hypothesis  that  these 
narratives  were  supernaturally  revealed  to  the  his- 
torian, or  that  they  were  miraculously  preserved 
and  handed  down  from  generation  to  generation 
until  they  reached  him  as  an  infallible  record  of 
events  long  anterior. 

Why  should  we  think  that  the  Hebrew  prehis- 
toric history  is  not  composed  like  the  prehistoric 
history  of  all  other  peoples  of  legends  and  myths  ? 
It  appears  to  be.  Is  there  anything  in  the  use  of 
legend  and  myth  to  cast  discredit  on  the  spiritual 
value  of  this  Book  of  Origins  ?  What  is  legend  ? 
What  is  myth? 

A  legend  is  a  non-historical  narrative  handed 
down  through  the  early  ages  by  word  of  mouth.  It 
invariably  has  some  .historical  basis;  but  imagina- 
tion has  so  modified,  ornamented,  and  perhaps 
exaggerated  it  that  it  is  generally  impossible  to 
determine  accurately  how  much  of  fact  and  how 
much  of  unconscious  fiction  enters  into  it.  It  is 
not,  indeed,  without  historical  value.  "  Tradition," 
says  Professor  Karl  Budde,  "  in  numberless  cases 


PREHISTORIC   TRADITIONS  REWRITTEN       75 

clothes  genuine  history  in  forms  which  at  first  sight 
appear  to  deserve  no  confidence  at  all.  The  task 
of  the  historian  is  first  of  all  to  understand  the  tra- 
dition. When  it  is  correctly  understood,  he  will 
not  throw  it  away,  but  will  make  use  of  it  in  the 
proper  sense  and  in  the  proper  place.  In  this  way 
tradition  is  transformed  into  history."  ^  Neverthe- 
less, the  value  of  the  legends  of  an  ancient  people 
is  not  in  the  accuracy  of  the  narrative.  Is  it  true 
that  Alfred  the  Great  had  his  ears  boxed  because 
he  did  not  turn  the  scone  when  it  was  sufficiently 
baked  ?  We  do  not  know.  But  the  story  could 
not  have  arisen  concerning  Alfred  the  Great  except 
in  a  community  which  had  within  itself  the  elements 
of  that  democratic  character  which  has  character- 
ized the  Anglo-Saxon  people  in  all  ages  of  the 
world.  Did  William  Tell  shoot  the  arrow  from  his 
son's  head  ?  Probably  not.  But  the  story  could 
not  have  arisen  except  among  a  people  loving 
independence  and  daring  everything  to  win  and 
maintain  it.  Did  Pocahontas  save  the  life  of  John 
Smith  by  throwing  herself  prostrate  upon  him? 
We  cannot  now  tell.  But  there  is  in  the  story  a 
precursor  of  that  cosmopolitan  character  overrun- 
ning all  lines  of  race  and  religion  which  has 
characterized  the  American  people  in  its  history 
from  that  time  to  this.  These  legends  of  an  early 
date  indicate  the  character  of  the  people,  and  in 
this  lies  their  value.     It  is  in  this  that  the  value  of 

^  Religion  of  Israel  to  the  Exile,  by  Professor  Karl  Budde,  Lec- 
ture i.  p.  2. 


76      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

the  Hebrew  legends  lies.  They  are  not  scientific 
records  of  an  age  so  remote  that  no  scientific 
investigation  can  give  us  trustworthy  historical 
information  concerning  it ;  but  they  are  indica- 
tions that  the  spiritual  temper  of  this  people 
characterized  their  earliest  consciousness  as  it  is 
manifested  in  these  stories  of  their  prehistoric  life. 
The  myth,  on  the  other  hand,  is  the  attempt  of 
a  primitive  people  to  state  an  abstract  truth  in  a 
concrete  form.  For  primitive  people,  like  children, 
cannot  conceive  an  abstract  truth  ;  they  can  con- 
ceive only  in  concrete  illustration.  Sometimes  to 
express  such  truth  they  take  a  legend,  pour  the 
truth  into  it,  and  it  becomes  a  mythical  legend; 
sometimes  they  invent  the  story  to  interpret  the 
truth  —  it  is  then  a  mythical  poem  or  fiction.  The 
Greeks  wished  to  express  the  truth  that  love  is  rich 
in  itself,  but  jjoor  in  its  possessions.  Love,  they 
said,  has  Resource  for  his  father  and  Poverty  for 
his  mother. 

"  Love  then,  as  being  the  child  of  Poverty  and  Re- 
source, has  a  strange  fate.  He  is  always  poor  ;  and  so 
far  from  being  delicate  and  fair,  as  most  people  suppose, 
is  rough  and  squalid,  unsandaled  and  homeless,  sleeping 
upon  the  bare  earth  beneath  the  open  sky,  and,  accord- 
ing to  his  mother's  nature,  is  always  mated  to  want. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  as  he  takes  after  his  father,  he 
aims  at  the  beautiful  and  the  good,  and  is  brave,  vigor- 
ous, and  energetic,  clever  in  the  pursuit  of  his  object, 
skillful  in  invention,  passionately  fond  of  knowledge, 
and  fertile  in  resoui'ce,  unceasingly  devoted  to  the  search 


PREHISTORIC    TRADITIONS   REWRITTEN       11 

after  wisdom,  and  withal  an  inveterate  trickster,  charla- 
tan, and  sophist."  ^ 

This  is  a  nij'th.  The  philosophic  moralist  of  to- 
day would  say,  Love  has  no  promise  of  the  outer 
world,  but  has  resources  within  itself ;  the  Greek 
said,  Poverty  and  Resource  married ;  Love  was 
born  to  them,  and  inherited  poverty  from  the  one 
and  resource  from  the  other. 

Three  great  problems  have  confronted  men  from 
the  earliest  ages  :  the  origin  of  the  cosmos  ;  the 
cause  of  the  differences  in  human  character  and 
condition,  including  the  problem  of  sin  and  its  con- 
sequences ;  and  the  future  destiny  of  man.  The 
modern  philosopher  gives  his  answers  to  these  ques- 
tions in  abstract  form ;  the  primitive  peoples,  in 
concrete  narratives.  Our  answers  are  philosophy  ; 
theirs  were  myths.  Such  myths  are  generally  un- 
conscious growths  ;  Plato  furnishes  an  illustration 
of  the  method  of  their  growth  by  his  naive  and 
probably  not  serious  plan  for  manufacturing  one. 
He  says :  — 

"  All  ye  who  are  in  the  State,  we  will  say  to  them  fol- 
lowing out  our  fiction,  are  brethren  ;  but  God  when  he 
moulded  you,  at  the  time  of  your  birth,  mixed  gold  in 
the  substance  of  all  you  who  were  fit  to  rule,  and  there- 
fore they  are  the  most  honored.  He  infused  silver  in 
the  military  caste,  iron  and  bronze  in  the  husbandmen 
and  craftsmen  generally.  The  offspring  of  these  sev- 
eral classes  will,  as  a  general  rule,  preserve  the  character 

^  From  The  Symposium  of  Plato  as  rendered  by  Bishop  West- 
cott  in  The  History  of  Religious  Thought  in  the  West,  pp.  7, 8. 


78      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

of  their  parents.  But  if  the  signs  of  silver  or  gold 
appear  in  the  chihlren  of  the  bronze  or  iron  castes,  they 
must  then  be  raised  to  their  due  places.  And  if  bronze 
or  iron  appear  where  we  look  for  gold,  that  too  must  be 
reduced  to  its  proper  rank." 

He  adds  :  — 

"  "We  shall  not  persuade  the  first  generation  that  it  is 
so,  but  it  may  be  in  time  that  their  descendants  will  be- 
lieve our  tale.  And  the  belief  would  contribute  greatly 
to  the  good  of  the  State  and  to  the  good  of  one  another."  ^ 

Tlie  early  history  of  all  peoples  is  in  legends  ; 
the  early  philosophy  of  all  peoples  is  in  myths. 
There  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  the  Hebrew 
people  are  any  exception  to  this  otherwise  universal 
rule.  When  the  literary  critic  says  that  the  Book 
of  Genesis  is  a  collection  of  legends  and  myths,  he 
does  not   stigmatize  it  as  valueless.^     He  affirms 

1  Ibid.,  pp.  9,  10. 

2  Bishop  Westcott  points  out  the  providential  use  of  the  myth, 
and  indirectly  indicates  that  it  might  well  be  used  as  a  vehicle  for 
the  conveyance  of  divine  truth  iu  a  divinely  inspired  •writing. 
From  his  suggestive  essay  on  The  Myths  of  Plato,  above  referred 
to,  which  is  well  worthy  of  the  student's  careful  reading,  I  quote 
a  few  sentences.  "  Thus  there  are  two  problems  with  which  the 
Platonic  myths  deal,  the  origin  and  destiny  of  cosmos,  and  the 
origin  and  destiny  of  man.  Both  problems  obviously  transcend 
all  experience  and  all  logical  processes  of  reason.  But  no  less  both 
are  ever  present  to  the  student  of  life,  though  he  may  neglect  them 
in  the  investigation  of  details  or  deliberately  set  them  aside  as 
hopelessly  insoluble  "  (p.  11).  "  Whatever  may  be  the  prevail- 
ing fashion  of  an  age,  the  Myths  of  Plato  remain  an  unfailing 
testimony  to  the  religious  wants  of  man.  They  show  not  only  that 
reason  by  its  logical  processes  is  unable  to  satisfy  them,  but  also  in 
what  directions  its  weakness  is  most  apparent  and  least  support- 


PREHISTORIC    TRADITIONS   REWRITTEN       79 

that  its  value  lies,  not  in  the  historical  or  scientific 
accuracy  of  its  stories,  but  in  the  indications  which 
they  afford  of  the  pre-natal  character  of  this  He- 
brew people,  and  in  the  spiritual  truths  of  which 
these  stories  are  the  vehicle.  What  these  indica- 
tions are,  what  that  truth  is,  I  have  already  indi- 
cated. The  story  of  creation  is  not  a  scientific 
treatise  on  cosmogony.  When  neighboring  peoples 
deified  nature,  worshiping  the  sun  and  moon  and 
stars,  the  birds  and  beasts,  the  sacred  river  Nile, 
the  cattle  that  browsed  upon  its  shore,  the  croco- 
diles that  swam  in  its  waters,  and  the  very  beetles 
which  crawled  along  its  banks,  the  Hebrew  myth 
of  creation  embodied  the  truth  that  God  is  Spirit, 
and  Spirit  is  creative  ;  that  God  has  made  man 
in  his  own  image ;  that  of  created  beings  man 
alone  is  divine  ;  and  that  nature,  which  by  pagan 
religions  men  were  taught  abjectly  to  worship,  is 
man's  serf  whom  he  is  to  tame,  harness,  and  make 
do  his  bidding.  The  Hebrew  myth  of  Eden  em- 
bodied the  truth  that  sin  is  willful  disobedience  of 
law ;  that  conscience  makes  cowards  of  us  all ; 
that  between  sin  and  the  human  soul  is  to  be  eter- 
nal and  undying  hate ;  that  sin  will  corrupt  the 

able.  They  form,  as  it  were,  a  natural  sclieme  of  the  questions 
with  which  a  revelation  might  be  expected  to  deal,  —  Creation, 
Providence,  Immortality,  —  which  as  they  lie  farthest  from  the 
reason,  lie  nearest  to  the  heart.  And  in  doing  this,  they  are  so  far 
an  unconscious  prophecy  of  which  the  teaching  of  Christianity  is 
the  fulfillment.  .  .  .  But  more  than  this :  the  Myths  mark  also  the 
shape  which  a  revelation  for  men  might  be  expected  to  take. 
The  doctrine  is  conveyed  in  an  historic  form :  the  ideas  are  of- 
fered as  facts ;  the  myth  itself  is  the  message  "  (ibid.,  pp.  48,  49). 


80      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

whole  human  race,  but  that  the  human  race  will 
destroy  sin,  or,  to  relate  it  in  the  language  of  the 
myth,  the  serpent  shall  poison  the  heel  of  man,  and 
man  shall  crush  the  serpent's  head.  The  Hebrew 
myth  of  the  expulsion  from  the  garden  embodied 
the  truth  that  sorrow  is  disciplinary,  and  the  road 
from  the  garden  of  innocence  to  the  victory  of  vir- 
tue is  through  the  struggle  of  the  wilderness.  The 
Hebrew  myth  of  the  deluge  embodied  the  truth 
that  destruction  of  sinners  can  never  cure  the  world 
of  sin.  The  Hebrew  myth  of  Abraham  taught  the 
truth  that  he  who  seeks  God  shall  find  him,  and 
that  to  find  him  no  sacrifice  of  home  or  friends  or 
child  is  or  can  be  too  great ;  the  Hebrew  myth  of 
Jacob,  that  God  is  the  God  of  sinner  as  well  as 
of  saint,  and  remembers  his  mercies  unto  children's 
children  of  such  as  love  him  and  keep  his  com- 
mandments ;  the  myth  of  Joseph,  that  he  is  the 
Providence  of  all  who  put  their  trust  in  him  — 
God  in  Egypt  as  in  the  Holy  Land,  in  Pharaoh's 
prison  and  Pharaoh's  palace,  God  of  gods  and 
Lord  of  lords. 

This  ancient  compilation  of  prehistoric  myths 
and  legends  is  valuable,  not  because  of  any  scien- 
tific addition  which  it  makes  to  our  knowledge  of 
early  history,  but  because  it  shows  us  the  conscious- 
ness of  God  in  the  early  experiences  of  that  re- 
markable people  to  whom  more  than  to  all  other 
peoples  combined  the  world  owes  its  knowledge  of 
God,  its  standards  of  righteousness,  and  its  im- 
pulse to  the  divine  life. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE    BOOK   OF    THE    COVENANT 

It  is  a  common  belief  among  primitive  peoples 
that  their  code  of  laws  was  dictated  to  the  law- 
givers by  a  god  or  the  gods.  This  seems  to  have 
been  the  opinion  of  the  ancient  Hebrews  concern- 
ing their  system  of  laws  contained  in  the  Books  of 
Exodus,  Numbers,  Leviticus,  and  Deuteronomy. 
That  opinion  has  passed  over  into  the  Christian 
Church,  where  it  has  been  widely  held  that  this 
entire  code,  with  all  its  complex  regulations  respect- 
ing both  civil  life  and  ecclesiastical  offices,  was 
given  by  Jehovah  to  Moses  and  reduced  by  him  to 
writing.  According  to  this  view,  the  entire  code, 
civil  and  ecclesiastical,  dates  from  about  1450  b.  c.^ 
References  in  these  codes  to  conditions  that  did  not 
exist  until  long  after  the  death  of  Moses  are  sup- 
posed to  have  been  prophetic  and  preparatory  for 
conditions  yet  to  come.  Some  of  the  scholars  of  the 
olden  time  even  maintained  that  the  account  of 
the  death  of  Moses,  contained  in  the  last  chapter  of 
Deuteronomy,  was  written  by  Moses  prophetically 
before  the  death  occurred,  though  no  one,  I  think, 

1  Or  according  to  modem  chronology  1250  B.  C.    See  chrono- 
logical table  on  page  xi. 


82      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

any  longer  entertains  that  opinion.  It  is  generally 
conceded  by  the  most  conservative  critics  that  this 
postlude  to  the  book,  and  perhaps  some  other 
special  provisions  scattered  through  the  Pentateuch 
which  are  wholly  inapplicable  to  the  nomadic  life 
of  the  wilderness,  were  added  by  an  unknown 
writer  subsequent  to  the  death  of  Moses.^ 

The  modern  critic  believes  that  no  part  of  these 
law  books  was  written  by  Moses  in  their  present 
form  ;  that  they  contain  laws  and  prescribe  customs 
which  grew  up  gradually  among  the  Hebrew  people 
during  a  checkered  history  of  nearly  ten  centuries ; 
that  while  the  oldest  portion  of  the  codes  of  which 
these  books  are  composed  probably  embodies  sub- 
stantially his  teaching,  the  latest  civil  code,  as  we 
have  it  in  Deuteronomy,  was  not  formulated  until 

^  This  is  the  substantially  nnanimons  opinion  of  scholars  who 
insist  upon  the  Mosaic  authorship  of  the  rest  of  the  book,  e.  g.  : 
"This  chapter  could  not  be  written  by  Moses  himself,  but  was 
added  by  Joshua  or  Eleazar,  or,  as  Patrick  conjectures,  by  Samuel, 
who  was  a  prophet,  and  wrote  by  divine  authority  what  he  found 
in  the  records  of  Joshua,  and  his  successors,  the  judges."  Matthew 
Henry,  Commentary  on  Deut.  xxsdv.  1-14.  "  It  seems  most  proba- 
ble, and  is  commonly  believed,  that  this  chapter  was  not  written 
by  Moses,  but  by  Eleazar  or  Joshua,  or  Ezra,  or  some  other  man  of 
God,  directed  herein  by  the  Holy  Ghost ;  this  being  no  more  im- 
peachment to  the  Divine  authority  of  this  chapter,  that  the  pen- 
man is  unknown,  which  also  is  the  lot  of  some  other  books  of 
Scripture,  than  it  is  to  the  authority  of  the  acts  of  the  king  or 
parliament,  that  they  are  written  or  printed  by  some  unknown 
person."  FooVs  Annotations,  \ol.  i.'p.  A01.  The  thoughtful  reader 
will  probably  observe  that  this  argument  applies  with  as  much 
force  to  the  whole  Book  of  Deuteronomy  as  to  a  single  supple- 
mentary chapter  of  the  book. 


THE  BOOK   OF   THE    COVENANT  83 

about  the  year  620  b.  c,  and  the  final  ecclesiastical 
code,  as  contained  in  the  Levitical  or  Canon  law, 
and  especially  in  the  Book  of  Leviticus,  was  not 
formulated  as  we  now  possess  it  until  about  the 
year  525  b.  c.  These  dates,  of  course,  are  only 
approximate  ;  for  it  is  not  supposed  that  the  exact 
year  of  the  completion  of  any  of  the  codes  can  now 
be  ascertained.  It  will  thus  be  seen  that  the  ques- 
tion between  the  old  and  the  new  view  of  the  Bible 
is  more  than  one  of  mere  dates  or  authorship.  It 
is  not  the  question,  as  it  has  been  humorously  de- 
fined, whether  the  Pentateuch  was  written  by 
Moses  or  by  another  man  named  Moses ;  it  is  the 
question  whether  the  books  constituting  the  Penta- 
teuch were  given  at  one  time  and  through  one 
prophet,  as  the  Mohammedans  believe  was  the  case 
with  the  Koran,  or  whether  they  record  the  growth 
of  a  great  people  under  the  guidance  and  inspira- 
tion of  God.  This  is  not  a  mere  literary  question. 
It  is  distinctively  a  theological,  and  in  some  sense 
a  religious,  question.  I  hold  the  second  of  these 
two  opinions  ;  and  in  this  and  the  next  article  I 
propose  to  elucidate  this  opinion  more  fully. 

The  parallel  between  a  nation  and  an  individual 
is  a  very  familiar  one,  at  least  as  old  as  Plato. 
The  nation  grows  as  the  individual  grows.  Man 
has  been  described  as  a  "  bundle  of  habits."  That 
is  not  quite  an  accurate  description.  He  inherits 
something  from  his  forefathers.  Then  on  that  in- 
heritance he  begins  to  build  character.  Action 
frequently  repeated  becomes  a  habit ;  habit  long 


84      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

continued  becomes  a  second  nature  ;  and  this  second 
nature,  the  product  of  habit  long  continued  incor- 
porated in  and  mixed  with  what  he  has  inherited, 
makes  the  man  what  he  is.  He  may  in  this  pro- 
cess of  growth  write  down  resolutions,  as  Jonathan 
Edwards  did,  and  endeavor  to  live  up  to  them ; 
but  the  man  is  not  made  by  the  resolutions  he 
writes  ;  he  is  made  by  the  life  he  lives ;  and  the 
resolutions  which  he  writes  are  both  a  product  of 
the  preceding  life  and  an  impulse  and  a  guidance 
to  the  life  that  lies  before  him.  In  a  similar 
manner  grows  the  nation.  It  starts  with  certain 
racial  peculiarities.  It  is  an  Anglo-Saxon  race,  or 
a  Latin  race,  or  a  Semitic  race.  This  is  its  in- 
heritance, and  on  this  inheritance  it  builds  its 
character.  In  the  building  of  this  character,  first 
comes  custom  ;  for  what  habit  is  to  the  individual, 
custom  is  to  the  nation ;  after  this  custom  has  been 
long  repeated,  so  that  it  has  entered  into  and 
formed  a  part  of  the  national  character,  it  is  not 
infrequently  reduced  to  writing.  Sometimes  this 
is  done  early  in  its  history  ;  sometimes  some  pro- 
phet arises  who  sees  in  advance  of  his  fellows  and 
reduces  to  writing  that  which  he  thinks  the  nation 
ought  to  aim  to  be.  But  the  nation  is  not  made 
by  its  written  constitution  or  its  written  laws,  it  is 
made  by  its  custom ;  it  is  not  made  by  what  it 
resolves  it  will  do,  nor  by  what  some  one  says  it  has 
done  or  ought  to  do  ;  it  is  made  by  what  in  point 
of  fact  it  does.  For  the  nation,  like  the  individual, 
is  built  up  by  the  processes  of  life  itself. 


THE  BOOK   OF   THE    COVENANT  85 

In  this  process  there  may  be,  and  often  are, 
critical  periods ;  there  may  be,  and  often  are,  im- 
portant writings.  The  Magna  Charta  was  one 
such  in  England ;  the  Constitutions  of  Clarendon 
were  another.  But  the  nation  is  not  made  by 
these ;  these  help  to  form  its  constitution  only  so 
far  as  they  are  actually  embodied  in  its  real  life. 
If  it  has  a  written  constitution,  as  we  profess  to 
have,  still  its  real  character  is  determined  not  by 
the  writing,  but  by  the  life,  and  it  changes  its 
constitution  by  its  life,  whether  it  incorporates 
those  changes  in  the  written  document  or  not.  We 
as  an  American  people  are  to-day,  not  what  Hamil- 
ton and  Madison  said  we  ought  to  be  ;  we  are  what 
we  have  been,  what  our  national  life  has  made  us. 
Even  our  written  Constitution  itself  is  changed  by 
other  processes  than  those  of  formal  amendment. 
It  has  been  often  said  by  jurists  that  Chief  Justice 
Marshall  has  done  as  much  to  make  the  real  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States  what  it  is,  though  he 
never  wrote  a  line  of  it,  as  did  any  of  its  framers.^ 
We  have  recently  passed  through  an  epoch  in 
which  we  have  incorporated  a  very  important  ele- 
ment in  our  National  Constitution.     The  question 

^  ' '  The  task  which  Marshall  had  to  perform  was  the  arduous 
one  of  construction  ;  fortunately  he  had  to  a  very  striking  degree 
the  constructive  faculty,  a  rare  gift,  and  certainly  the  highest 
form  of  intellectual  ability  which  lawyers  can  ever  use  and  dis- 
play." John  Marshall,  Allan  B.  Magruder,  p.  105.  The  very 
words  here  used,  "  constructive  "  and  "  construction,"  indicate'the 
recognized  function  of  a  chief  justice,  which  is  to  construct  the 
constitution  by  the  very  process  of  interpreting  it. 


86      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

arose  whether  a  representative  might  be  excluded 
by  Congress  from  his  seat  in  Congress  because  he 
was  a  polygamist.  He  had  been  unquestionably 
elected  by  a  majority  of  the  district  which  he 
claimed  to  represent.  One  party  in  Congress  said : 
No !  the  district  has  an  absolute  and  final  right  to 
select  whom  it  will,  and  if  the  man  thus  selected 
has  the  three  qualifications,  age,  residence,  and 
citizenship,  without  which  no  man  can  enter  Con- 
gress, he  must  be  admitted,  no  matter  what  his 
character.  The  other  party  replied  :  Every  man 
in  the  House  of  Eepresentatives  represents  not 
only  his  State,  but  the  Nation,  and  although  the 
initiative  comes  from  the  State,  the  Nation  possesses 
a  veto  power,  and  can  refuse  to  allow  a  man  who 
is  living  in  open  violation  of  the  laws  of  his  State 
and  the  moral  sentiment  of  the  Nation  to  represent 
the  Nation  in  its  legislative  body  ;  and  the  House 
of  Representatives,  by  a  vote  of  286  to  60,  decided 
that  Congress,  that  is,  the  Nation  through  Con- 
gress, had  such  a  veto  power  over  the  action  of  any 
particular  State.  In  the  future  this  is  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States.  It  has  been  made 
so  by  the  decision  of  a  body  in  whom  the  consti- 
tutional power  of  rendering  that  decision  has  been 
vested.  Thus  the  government,  whether  it  has  a 
written  constitution  or  not,  grows  by  means  of 
decisions  more  or  less  formally  registered  and 
more  or  less  fully  carried  out  in  the  national  life. 
The  protection  of  our  property  and  our  person 
depends,  not  primarily  upon  the  statutes  that  have 


THE   BOOK    OF    THE    COVENANT  87 

been  enacted  by  the  legislatures  of  the  various 
States,  not  primarily  upon  the  statutes  that  have 
been  enacted  by  the  Congress  of  the  United  States, 
but  upon  what  is  known  as  the  common  law  ;  and 
the  common  law  is  nothing  more  or  less  than  the 
customs  which  have  grown  up  among  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  people.  It  is  thus  evident  that  the  Con- 
stitution and  laws  of  the  United  States,  and  still 
more  evident  that  those  of  Great  Britain,  are  the 
product  of  a  gradual  growth,  beginning,  let  us  say, 
with  Alfred  the  Great  and  continuing  to  the 
present  time. 

The  character  of  a  nation,  then,  may  be  described 
as  the  result  of  three  cooperating  forces :  first,  a 
racial  characteristic ;  second,  the  acceptance  by  a 
nation  in  its  birth-period,  or  one  of  its  successive 
birth-periods,  of  a  dominant  principle  —  as  auto- 
cracy by  Russia,  the  supremacy  of  the  State  over  the 
Church  by  England,  the  authority  of  the  common 
people  by  the  United  States  ;  and,  third,  the  na- 
tional habit,  applying  these  fundamental  principles 
to  changed  conditions,  perhaps  adding  new  and  cog- 
nate principles,  perhaps  modifying  those  already 
accepted  for  better  or  worse,  or  departing  from 
them  more  or  less  widely.  Finally,  this  national 
habit  is  incorporated  in  writings  —  in  the  form 
either  of  text-books  recognized  as  authoritative 
because  the}'^  reflect  the  national  organic  will,  or 
of  judicial  decisions  authoritatively  declaring  that 
will,  or  of  codes  issued  by  legislative  authority  or 
approved  by  popular  acquiescence  and  acceptance. 


88      LIFE   AND    LITERATURE    OF    THE   HEBREWS 

It  is,  therefore,  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that  the 
authority  of  the  law  dates  from  the  promulgation 
of  the  code.  The  code  is  generally  the  last  step  in 
the  growth  of  the  national  law.  It  is  not  authori- 
tative because  it  is  promulgated  ;  it  promulgates 
what  is  already  authoritative.  In  general,  the 
codification  of  a  system  of  laws  marks  the  end,  not 
the  beginning,  of  its  growth. ^  When,  therefore,  the 
modern  critic  says  that  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy 
was  written  b.  c.  640,  and  the  Book  of  Leviticus 
B.  c.  525,  he  does  not  mean  that  the  civil  laws  in- 
corporated in  the  one  and  the   sacrificial  system 

^  The  reader  will  find  these  principles  elucidated  and  illustrated 
by  Sir  Henry  Maine  in  his  Ancient  Law,  especially  in  chaps,  i. 
and  ii.,  from  which  I  quote  a  few  significant  and  suggestive 
sentences :  "  The  Homeric  word  for  a  custom  in  the  embryo  is 
sometimes  '  Themis '  (6eV's)  in  the  singular  —  more  often  'Dike' 
(Sf/CT?),  the  meaning  of  which  visibly  fluctuates  between  a  'judg- 
ment' and  a  'custom'  or  'usage.'  'Nomos'  {v6fjLQs),  a  Law,  so 
great  and  famous  a  term  in  the  political  vocabulary  of  the  later 
Greek  society,  does  not  occur  in  Homer."  ...  "  It  is  certain 
that,  in  the  infancy  of  mankind,  no  sort  of  legislature,  not  even  a 
distinct  author  of  law,  is  contemplated  or  conceived  of.  Law  has 
scarcely  reached  the  footing  of  custom  ;  it  is  rather  a  habit.  It 
is,  to  use  a  French  phrase,  '  in  the  air.'  "  .  .  .  "  The  Hindoo  Code, 
called  the  Laws  of  Menu,  which  is  certainly  a  Brahmin  compila- 
tion, undoubtedly  enshrines  many  genuine  observances  of  the 
Hindoo  race,  but  the  opinion  of  the  best  contemporary  orientalists 
is,  that  it  does  not,  as  a  whole,  represent  a  set  of  rules  ever  actu- 
ally administered  in  Hindostan.  It  is,  in  great  part,  an  ideal 
picture  of  that  which,  in  the  view  of  the  Brahmins,  ought  to  be 
the  law."  ..."  When  primitive  law  has  once  been  embodied  in 
a  code,  there  is  an  end  to  what  may  be  called  its  spontaneous 
development.  Henceforward  the  changes  effected  in  it,  if  effected 
at  all,  are  effected  deliberately  and  from  without."  Pp.  5,  7,  16, 
17,  20. 


THE  BOOK   OF   THE    COVENANT  89 

incorporated  in  the  other  were  then  first  instituted. 
He  means  rather  that  they  were  then  first  com- 
pleted, and  so  capable  of  being  reduced  to  a 
codified  form. 

As  the  modern  State  is  the  product  of  a  gradual 
growth,  so  is  the  modern  Church.  Each  denomi- 
nation is  inclined,  naturally,  to  carry  back  its 
dogmatic  beliefs  and  its  ecclesiastical  usages  to  a 
remote  time,  and  claim  for  them  a  divine  origin ; 
to  think  itself  born  full  grown.  But  each  denomi- 
nation recognizes  that  the  beliefs  and  usages  of  its 
neighbor  have  been  gradually  developed,  by  a  pro- 
cess more  or  less  lengthy  and  complex,  from  simple 
beginnings.  Thus,  whatever  claim  the  Roman 
Catholic  ecclesiastic  may  make  for  the  divine 
origin  of  his  church,  the  Protestant  scholar  un- 
hesitatingly traces  in  ecclesiastical  history  the 
successive  steps  by  which  that  church  has  grown 
to  its  present  complex  faith,  organization,  and 
ritual.  He  tells  us  that  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy, 
the  adoration  of  the  Virgin,  and  the  use  of  images 
all  date  from  the  fourth  century ;  that  Indulgence 
as  a  release  from  the  pains  and  penalties  of  pur- 
gatory was  not  formally  announced  until  the  four- 
teenth century ;  that  the  title  "  pope  "  was  applied 
to  all  bishops  in  the  primitive  church,  and  that  the 
supremacy  of  the  bishop  of  Rome  was  not  claimed 
until  the  fourth  century,  his  infallibility  was  not 
asserted  until  about  the  eleventh,  and  was  not 
authoritatively  affirmed  until  the  nineteenth.  The 
canons  of  that  church  are  equally  the  product  of 


90      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

growth.  The  Decretum  of  Gratianus  in  the  twelfth 
century  was  a  codification  partly  of  previous  codes, 
pai'tly  of  incongruous  customs  and  inconsistent 
decrees,  and  has  become  in  turn  the  basis  of  sub- 
sequent additions  and  modifications.^  Nor  is  i.t 
less  certain  that  both  the  creeds  and  the  ecclesias- 
tical usages  of  Protestant  churches  have  in  a  similar 
manner  grown  up  gradually.  The  creed  has  gen- 
erally been  forged  as  a  weapon  supposed  to  be 
necessary  for  the  defense  of  the  preexisting  faith ;  ^ 
the  canon  has  been  tempered  and  fashioned  into 
obligatory  law  out  of  what  was  at  first  only  a 
convenient  custom  —  and  this  whether  it  involves 
the  authority  of  the  bishop  in  Episcopacy  or  the 

1  For  a  good  brief  history  of  the  canon  law  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church,  which  may  serve  as  an  illustration  of  the  prob- 
able process  which  preceded  the  final  codification  of  the  canon 
law  of  the  Hebrew  church  in  the  Levitical  code,  see  article  Canon 
Law,  in  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica. 

'^  Calvin's  Institutes  are  a  striking  illustration  of  this  truth,  as 
may  be  seen  from  the  following  quotations  :  "  We  conclude,  then, 
that  it  is  not  now  left  to  faithfvd  ministers  to  frame  any  new  doc- 
trine, but  that  it  behoves  them  simply  to  adhere  to  the  doctrine 
to  which  God  has  made  all  subject,  without  any  exception." 
Institutes  of  the  Christian  Beligion,  John  Calvin,  trans,  by  John 
Allen,  6th  Am.  ed.,  vol.  ii.,  bk.  4,  chap.  viii.  §  ix.  "Upon  this 
principle,  those  ancient  councils,  such  as  the  Council  of  Nice, 
of  Constantinople,  the  first  of  Ephesus,  that  of  Chalcedon,  and 
others  like  them,  which  were  held  for  the  condemnation  of  errors, 
we  cheerfully  receive  and  reverence  as  sacred,  as  far  as  respects 
the  articles  of  faith  which  they  have  defended ;  for  they  contain 
nothing  but  the  pure  and  natural  interpretation  of  the  Scripture, 
which  the  holy  fathers,  with  spiritual  prudence,  applied  to  the 
discomfiture  of  the  enemies  of  religion  who  arose  in  those  days." 
Ibid.,  bk.  4,  chap.  ix.  §  viii. 


THE    BOOK    OF   THE   COVENANT  91 

independence  of  the  local  church  in  Congrega- 
tionalism. 

The  modern  or  evolutionary  student  of  the  Bible 
believes  that  both  the  civil  and  the  ecclesiastical 
laws  of  the  Hebrew  people  were  developed  in  a  simi- 
lar manner.  As  we  now  possess  them  in  the  Books 
of  Exodus,  Numbers,  Leviticus,  and  Deuteronomy, 
they  are  the  product  of  ten  centuries  of  national 
growth.  Into  their  composition  have  entered  iowv 
elements  :  (1)  the  character  of  the  Hebrews  as  a 
pecidiarly  religious  people,  that  is,  one  preeminent 
for  their  possession  of  a  moral  consciousness  of 
God ;  (2)  the  prophetic  genius  of  the  great  founder 
of  their  nation,  the  prophet  statesman  Moses  ;  (3) 
the  successive  additions  to  the  principles  enunciated 
by  him  made  by  subsequent  prophets  possessed  of 
a  similar  spirit,  and  successive  applications  of  those 
principles,  and  in  some  cases  departures  from  them, 
by  the  people  into  whose  life  they  had  entered ; 
(4)  and,  finally,  their  codification  in  a  substantially 
final  form  in  the  two  great  codes,  —  one  the  civil 
or  Deuteronomic  code,  the  other  the  ecclesiastical  or 
Levitical  code.  To  trace  the  origin  and  OTowth 
of  these  codes  or  systems  of  laws,  and  to  interpret 
their  fundamental  principles,  will  be  the  object  of 
this  and  the  next  article  in  this  series. 

The  founder  of  the  Hebrew  nation,  and  in  some 
sense  of  its  distinctive  theology  and  its  type  of 
religion,  was  Moses.  Who,  then,  M'as  Moses  ?  A 
shadowy  figure,  so  far  in  the  remote  past  that  in 
studying  the  details   of   his  life  it  is  impossible 


92      LIFE   AND    LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

scientifically  to  separate  the  legendary  from  the 
historical.  Yet  it  must  not  be  forgotten  in  such  a 
case  that  legends  themselves  indicate  not  less  truly 
than  do  assured  historical  facts  the  essential  ele- 
ments in  the  character  of  him  around  whom  they 
have  grown  up.^  The  story  of  his  life,  as  we  gather 
it  from  Biblical  and  extra-Biblical  sources,  is  briefly 
as  follows.^      Israel  was  an  unorganized  body  of 

^  See,  ante,  chap.  iii.  pp.  74  £f.  Substantially  all  critics  recognize 
in  Moses  one  of  the  greatest  and  most  creative  spirits  of  ancient 
history.  Thus  Renan,  who  speaks  of  him  as  "  completely  buried 
by  the  legends  -which  have  grown  up  over  him,"  still  recognizes 
him  33  "  a  colossus  among  the  great  mythical  figures  of  humanity." 
History  of  the  People  of  Israel,  vol.  i.  p.  135.  Dr.  H.  Oort  re- 
gards him  as  the  founder  of  the  Hebrew  Nation,  and  so  of  that 
spiritual  movement  which  culminated  in  Christianity.  "  It  is  due 
to  Moses  in  the  first  instance  that  the  uncivilized  hordes  that  wan- 
dered through  the  Arabian  deserts  in  the  thirteenth  century  before 
Christ,  and  afterwards  conquered  Canaan,  finally  produced  such 
noble  resvdts."  ...  "In  many  respects  his  character  was  moulded 
by  that  of  his  age,  but  the  direction  which  he  gave  to  the  powers 
of  Lsrael  opens  a  new  era.  Moses,  the  founder  of  the  moral 
Yahweh-worship,  stands  at  the  head  of  the  spiritual  movement 
which  culminated  in  him  who  said :  Blessed  are  the  pure  in 
heart,  for  they  shall  see  God  !  "  Bible  for  Learners,  vol.  i.  pp. 
313,  325.  Ewald  recognizes  the  historical  trustworthiness  of  the 
narrative  in  Exodus  in  its  main  incidents.  ''  That  Moses  was 
brought  up  in  Egyptian  learning  and  knowledge,  but  yet,  when 
driven  to  an  act  of  patriotic  indignation,  obliged  to  flee  to  the 
peninsxila  of  Sinai,  and  to  take  refuge  with  Midian  (or,  according 
to  Hellenistic  pronunciation,  Madian),  the  ruling  nation  there, 
and  that  he  formed  a  friendship  wdth  a  prince  of  that  people, 
Hobab  (or  Jethro),  and  married  his  daughter,  is  also  in  its  present 
form  reported  only  by  the  Third  Narrator.  But  the  narrative  is 
without  doubt  based  on  genuine  history."  The  History  of  Israel, 
by  Heinrich  Ewald,  vol.  ii.  pp.  42,  43. 

^  The  original  authorities  for  a  study  of  the  life  of  Moses  are 


THE  BOOK    OF   THE    COVENANT  93 

slaves  under  a  remorseless  despotism.  The  inhu- 
man ill  usage  which  still  characterizes  the  despotism 
of  Egypt  remains  a  mournful  illustration  of  the 
simple  statement  of  the  Hebrew  historian,  "  There- 
fore they  did  set  over  them  taskmasters  to  afflict 
them  with  their  burdens."  The  echo  of  their  cry 
by  reason  of  their  taskmasters  is  still  to  be  heard 
in  the  melancholy  antiphonal  wail  sung  in  a  weird 
chorus  by  the  bands  of  workmen  and  workwomen 
on  the  banks  of  the  Nile  :  "  They  starve  us,  they 
starve  us  ;  they  beat  us,  they  beat  us  :  but  there  's 
some  one  above,  there  's  some  one  above,  who  will 
punish  them  well,  who  will  punish  them  well."^ 
Nevertheless,  despite  ill  usage,  the  Israelites  multi- 
plied rapidly.  It  seems  to  be  the  tendency  of 
slavery  to  increase  the  number  of  the  enslaved 
and  to  reduce  the  number  of  masters.  To  pre- 
vent the  possibility  of  an  insurrection,  an  edict 
was  issued  to  slay  all  the  male  children.  One 
Hebrew  mother,  with  an  audacious  ingenuity  which 
could  find  lodgment  only  in  a  mother's  heart,  re- 
solved to  save  her  baby  boy  from  the  tiger  by 
putting  him  into  the  tiger's  den.      She  put  the 

the  Pentateuch,  chiefly  the  Book  of  Exodus,  and  Josephus's  An- 
tiquities of  the  Jews,  books  ii.,  iii.,  and  iv.  S.  Baring-Gould, 
Legends  of  the  Patriarchs  and  Prophets,  chap,  xxxii.,  has  brought 
together  various  legends  from  other  sources  concerning  Moses. 
The  Koran  should  also  be  consulted  for  Mohammedan  legends 
(see  Selections  from  the  Kur-dn,  by  Edward  W.  Lane,  pp.  DT-L'Jl, 
Moses  and  his  People).  Also  compare  Stephen's  speech  (Acts 
chap,  vii.)  with  the  Exodus  narrative. 

^  Lectures  on  the  History  of  the  Jewish  Church,  Arthur  Penrhyn 
Stanley,  D.  D.,  Part  I.,  p.  93. 


94      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

child  in  a  basket  made  of  the  papyrus  which  grows 
in  great  quantities  by  the  banks  of  the  Nile.  Per- 
haps she  shared  the  Egyptian  fancy  that  this 
papyrus  was  a  protection  against  the  river  demon 
embodied  in  the  crocodile.  She  then  left  him  at 
the  water's  edge,  where  the  princess  came  to  bathe, 
and  set  her  daughter  to  watch  what  should  become 
of  the  little  waif.  She  could  neither  bear  to  wit- 
ness his  death  nor  endure  the  suspense  of  absolute 
ignorance  of  his  fate.  Her  scheme  succeeded ;  the 
cry  of  the  babe  appealed  to  the  woman's  heart  of 
the  princess ;  she  called  to  a  Hebrew  maid  who 
seemed  to  be  accidentally  standing  not  far  away ; 
and  the  sister  took  the  babe  back  to  his  own  mother 
to  be  nursed  until  he  should  be  old  enough  to  be 
weaned.  Then  he  was  transferred  to  the  palace  to 
be  educated  by  Egyptian  priests  as  the  adopted 
son  of  his  foster-mother.  The  Child  of  the  Waters 
became  an  Egyptian  prince.  Jewish  legends  report 
him  as  so  extraordinarily  beautiful  that  laborers 
stopped  from  their  toil  to  refresh  themselves  with 
a  glance  at  his  bright  face  ;  and  as  possessed  of  a 
mind  as  remarkable  as  his  body.  Egypt  was  the 
land  of  civilization,  of  art,  of  science,  and  of  philo- 
sophy ;  and  the  young  prince,  who,  by  virtue  of  his 
adoption  into  the  royal  family,  was  also  a  priest, 
became  versed  in  the  arts,  the  sciences,  and  the 
theology  of  the  Egj^ptian  cultivated  class.  The 
ancient  legends  respecting  him  declare  that  he  not 
only  acquainted  himself  with  the  civilization  of  his 
age,  but  added  to  it.     He  is  said  to  have  learned 


THE  BOOK   OF   THE    COVENANT  95 

arithmetic,  geometry,  astronomy,  medicine,  and 
music ;  to  have  invented  boats  and  engines  for 
building;  instruments  of  war  and  of  hydraulics, 
hieroglyphics,  and  division  of  lands  —  that  Is,  sur- 
veying. His  military  achievements  outshone  in 
popular  estimation  his  intellectual  attainments. 
He  conducted  with  great  success  a  campaign 
against  the  Ethiopians,  and  returned  in  triumph, 
probably  the  most  popular  man  in  the  kingdom 
despite  his  plebeian  origin  ;  but  also  probably  the 
most  envied.  But  he  never  forgot  that  he  was  a 
Hebrew ;  perhaps  with  the  Hebrew  blood  he  re- 
tained something  of  that  contempt  for  other  races 
which  has  been  at  once  the  strength  and  the  weak- 
ness of  the  Hebrew  race.  Nor  did  he  forget  the 
Hebrew  religion.  It  is  said  that  he  worshiped 
outside  the  temple  walls  an  unknown  God  ;  perhaps 
he  identified  the  God  of  his  Hebrew  mother  with 
the  incommunicable  deity  whom  the  esoteric  theo- 
logy of  the  Egyptian  priesthood  taught  him  to 
believe  was  back  of  and  manifested  through  the 
cloud  of  mediatorial  deities  whom  the  common 
people  ignorantly  worshiped.  Says  Rawlinson  in 
his  "  History  of  Egypt :  "  — 

"  The  primary  doctrine  of  the  esoteric  religion  un- 
doubtedly was  the  real  essential  Unity  of  the  Divine 
Nature.  The  sacred  texts  taught  that  there  was  a  single 
Being,  the  '  sole  producer  of  all  things,  both  in  heaven 
and  earth,  Himself  not  produced  of  any,'  .  .  .  '  the  only 
true  living  God,  self-originated,'  .  .  .  '  who  exists  from 
the  beginning,'  .  .  .  '  who  has  made  all  things,  but  has 


96      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

not  Himself  been  made.'  This  Being  seems  never  to 
have  been  represented  by  any  material,  even  symbolical, 
form.  It  is  thought  that  He  had  no  name,  or,  if  He 
had,  that  it  must  have  been  unlawful  either  to  pro- 
nounce or  write  it.  He  was  a  pure  spirit,  perfect  in 
every  respect  —  all-wise,  almighty,  supremely  good.  The 
gods  of  the  popular  mythology  were  understood,  in  the 
esoteric  religion,  to  be  either  personified  attributes  of 
the  Deity,  or  parts  of  the  nature  which  He  had  created, 
considered  as  improved  and  inspired  by  Him."  ^ 

It  is  not  improbable  that  this  doctrine,  which  the 
Egyptian  priests  held  as  an  abstraction,  Moses 
infused  with  a  life  of  real  devotion,  borrowed  from 
his  mother,  and  so  made  it  concrete  and  vital. 
Strabo  cannot  be  said  to  be  a  historical  authority 
respecting  Moses,  except  as  he  indicates  correctly 
the  popular  impression  of  a  later  epoch  ;  but  these 
im^jressions  are  not  incredible  ;  their  reality  would 
go  far  to  account  for  subsequent  events  in  the 
career  and  influence  of  this  extraordinary  man  ; 
and  according  to  Strabo,  "  He  [Moses]  taught  that 
the  Egyptian  was  not  right  in  likening  the  nature 
of  God  to  beasts  and  cattle,  nor  yet  the  Africans, 
nor  even  the  Greeks  in  fashioning  their  gods  in 
the  form  of  man.  He  taught  that  this  only  was 
God  —  that  which  encompasses  all  of  us,  earth 
and    sea ;   that  which   we   call   Heaven,  and   the 

^  History  of  Ancient  Egypt,  by  George  Rawlinson,  M.  A.,  vol.  i. 
p.  .324.  The  whole  chapter  (No.  10),  on  the  Religion  of  Ancient 
E&ypt)  is  worth  consultation  by  the  student  of  the  life  and  work 
of  Moses. 


THE   BOOK   OF   THE    COVENANT  97 

Order  of  the  world,  and  the  Nature  of  things." 
This  was  quite  in  accord  with  the  esoteric  doctrine 
of  the  Egyptian  priesthood.  But  no  one  so  angers 
a  priesthood  as  he  who  reveals  the  mysteries  of 
their  faith  to  the  common  herd ;  no  one  seems  to 
them  more  dangerous  than  he  who  at  once  spiritu- 
alizes and  popularizes  truth  which  they  have  re- 
garded purely  as  a  philosophy  and  therefore  as 
their  peculiar  possession.  Such  a  one  uses  their 
own  professed  beliefs  with  which  to  destroy  their 
professional  power.  He  is  condemned  as  a  rene- 
gade from  their  order,  a  betrayer  of  their  secrets, 
and  an  enemy  of  their  religion.  More  than  once 
Moses  narrowly  escaped  assassination.  Nothing  but 
the  intervention  of  Therm utis,  his  foster-mother, 
prevented  him  from  falling  a  prey  to  the  anger  of 
the  king,  who,  if  modern  scholars  are  right  in 
identifying  him  with  Rameses  11. ,  was  not  a  mon- 
arch to  brook  independence  in  another  or  to  con- 
trol the  passion  of  envy  in  himself. 

Such  is  the  story  of  Moses's  life  as  we  gather  it 
from  the  uncertain  traditions  of  the  past.  Such,  in 
shadowy  and  uncertain  outline,  was  the  training 
of  the  man  whose  passionate  burst  of  indignation 
against  an  incident  of  Egyptian  oppression  com- 
pelled him  to  flee  the  court  and  the  kingdom  ;  whose 
years  of  exile  in  the  wilderness  trained  in  him  the 
needed  spirit  of  patience,  gave  him  opportunity  for 
reflection  on  the  truths  which  he  had  learned  as  a 
philosophy  and  by  devout  meditation  was  to  con- 
vert into  religion,  and  familiarized  him  with  the 


98      LIFE   AND    LITERATURE    OF    THE   HEBREWS 

wilderness  into  which  he  was  to  lead  the  people 
whom  he  was  to  convert  into  a  nation  by  giving  to 
them  the  fundamental  principles  of  their  civil  and 
their  religious  life.  How  he  led  them  out  of  their 
bondage  into  that  wilderness  it  is  not  necessary 
here  to  relate.  The  story  is  familiar  to  every 
reader  of  the  Bible  :  it  is  enough  to  intimate  very 
briefly  the  cumulative  reasons  which  led  me  to 
accept  that  story  of  the  Exodus  as  in  its  essential 
character  trustworthy  history. 

In  the  first  place,  this  story  of  the  Exodus  is 
written  into  the  songs  and  stories  of  the  Hebrew 
people ;  it  is  interwoven  throughout  their  litera- 
ture.^ In  this  respect  it  is  in  striking  contrast 
with  the  story  of  the  Fall,  which,  after  it  is  once 
recorded  in  the  third  chapter  of  Genesis,  is  never 
again  referred  to  by  any  of  the  Old  Testament 
writers,  and  among  the  writers  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment only  by  Paul,  and  by  him  only  incidentally. 

But  it  is  not  only  in  their  literature  that  this 
exodus  of  Israel  from  Egypt  was  celebrated  ;  it 
was  celebrated  by  their  greatest  national  festival, 
the  Passover.  And  this  Passover  was  of  such  a 
character  as  to  indicate  a  true  memory  of  certain 
details  of  that  great  event ;  and  it  was  so  widely 
and  continuously  observed  as  to  make  incredible 
the  opinion  that   it  celebrated  nothing.^     As  the 

^  For  references  to  Moses  see  1  Chron.  xxi.  29 ;  xxii.  13  ;  xxiii. 
14, 15  ;  2  Chron.  xxiv.  6,  9  ;  xxxiv.  14  ;  Ps.  ciii.  7 ;  cv.  20  ;  cri.  ; 
Is.  Ixiii.  11, 12.  For  reference  to  the  Exodus  and  the  wanderings 
in  the  wilderness,  see  Pss.  cv.,  c\i.,  cxxxv.,  cxxxrvi. ;  Neh.  ix.  9-2o. 

2  Comp.  Exod.  ch.  xii. ;  Num.  ix.  5 ;  Josh.  v.  10,  11 ;  2  Kings 


THE    BOOK   OF   THE    COVENANT  99 

existence  of  the  American  Fourth  of  July  is  itself 
an  indication  of  a  definite  day  when  the  independ- 
ence of  the  nation  was  declared,  so  the  Passover  is 
an  indication  not  to  be  ignored  that  the  birth  of 
the  nation  was  characterized  by  some  such  event 
as  its  history  narrates  and  its  poets  celebrate. 

There  are  also  silent  witnesses  outside  either  the 
national  literature  or  the  national  life  to  the  sub- 
stantial truth  of  the  story  of  the  Exodus.  The 
Egyptian  monuments  contain  many  pictorial  repre- 
sentations which  serve  to  illustrate  the  Old  Testa- 
ment account  of  the  Exodus.  They  are  not  demon- 
strations of  its  accuracy,  but  they  are  at  least 
indications  that  it  is  not  inaccurate.  It  is  not 
within  the  province  of  this  article  to  attempt  to 
reproduce  in  any  detail  the  arguments  from  the 
monuments ;  it  must  suffice  to  say  that  I  believe 
there  never  has  been  found  in  Egypt  any  figure, 
symbol,  picture,  or  monument  which  tends  to 
throw  doubt  upon  the  narrative  in  the  Book  of 
Exodus,  or  to  indicate  that  the  story,  even  in  its 
minutest  details,  is  inaccurate,  while  there  are 
many  indications  of  the  accuracy  of  the  incidental 
allusions  to  Egyptian  sites  or  Egyptian  customs 
which  the  narrative  contains.^ 

xxiii.  21-23 ;  2  Chron.  xxx.  1 ;  xxxv.  1-19  ;  Ezra  vi.  19, 20  ;  Matt, 
xxvi.  17,  19.  A  comparison  of  these  references  wiU  show  that  the 
feast  of  the  Passover  was  kept  apparently  continuously  from  its 
first  appointment  down  to  Christ.  That  there  should  be  such  a 
continuous  celebration,  if  there  was  no  event  to  celebrate,  is 
hardly  credible. 

1  Any  illustrative   work  on   Egypt,  such  as    The  History  of 


100      LIFE   AND    LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

The  confirmation  lent  to  that  narrative  by  geo- 
graphical exploration  is  not  less  noteworthy.  Geo- 
graphical explorers  have  followed  the  line  of  the 
great  pilgrimage  ;  they  have  been  able  to  see 
where  the  nation  could  have  crossed  an  arm  of  the 
Red  Sea  in  the  manner  described  in  the  Biblical 
narrative  ;  where  a  passage  might  easily  have  been 
made  for  the  people  by  an  ebb  tide  and  a  strong 

Ancient  Egypt,  by  Dr.  Rawlinson,  or  The  Ancient  Egyptians,  by  Sir 
J.  Gardner  Wilkinson,  D.  C.  L.,  F.  R.  S.,  etc.,  contains  illustra- 
tions of  Egyptian  civilization  ■which  serve  to  throw  light  on  inci- 
dental references  in  the  Biblical  history.  For  a  general  study  of 
such  elucidations,  and  the  confirmation  given  to  Bible  history  by 
the  ancient  monuments,  see  Recent  Research  in  Bible  Lands,  Her- 
man V.  Hilprecht,  Ph.  D.,  D.  D. ;  The  Bible  and  Modern  Discoveries, 
by  Henry  A.  Harper  of  the  Palestine  Exploration  Fund ;  and 
History,  Prophecy,  and  the  Monuments,  by  J.  F.  McCurdy,  Ph.  D., 
LL.  D.,  Professor  of  Oriental  Languages  in  the  University  Col- 
lege, Toronto.  A  single  paragraph  from  Mr.  Harper's  book  may 
serve  to  indicate  the  nature,  though  not  the  extent,  of  the  con- 
firmation lent  to  the  Hebrew  history  of  the  Exodus  by  modern 
investigations  in  Egypt.  "  Before  we  leave  these  springs  let  us 
sum  up  what  the  recent  Biblical  gains  have  been.  The  true 
starting-point  of  the  Exodus,  with  the  city  of  Pithom,  has  been 
found.  Then,  also,  that  the  Hebrew  words  translated  in  the  Au- 
thorized Version  do  not  mean  'Red  Sea'  but  'Sea  of  Reeds.' 
Also  we  have  found  that  '  the  tongue  of  the  Egyptian  Sea '  at  the 
time  of  the  Exodus  extended  to  the  present  Lake  Timsah ;  that 
owing  to  the  elevation  of  the  ground  that  '  sea '  '  dried  up,'  and 
left  lakes  of  brackish  water,  through  which  the  present  Suez  Canal 
runs  ;  that  the  Israelites  crossed  '  the  Sea  of  Reeds  '  somewhere 
near  Lake  Timsah,  and  then  went  '  three  days '  journey  in  the 
wilderness  of  Etham,  and  pitched  in  Marah '  (Num.  xxxiii.  8). 
They  had  come  to  Marah,  and  find  the  '  waters  of  Marah  '  bitter. 
We  have  seen  that  these  '  Miisa '  springs  are  '  bitter,'  that  they 
have  a  deposit  of  bog  iron  ore  in  some,  and  others  are  '  brackish.' " 
P.  89. 


THE   BOOK    OF   THE    COVENANT  101' 

wind ;  and  where  quicksands  exist  which  inter- 
pret the  disaster  which  overwhelmed  the  pursuing 
Egyptians.  In  a  similar  manner,  almost  every 
step  of  the  journey  from  Egypt  to  Mount  Sinai 
lias  been  identified ;  and  a  great  plain  which 
would  well  serve  for  the  encampment  of  Israel 
at  the  foot  of  Mount  Sinai  is  there  to  indicate 
at  least  the  probability  of  such  an  encampment.^ 
It  is  true  that  a  historical  novelist  can  describe 
with  geographical  accuracy  any  scene  through 
which  his  hero  is  supposed  to  pass  ;  but,  in  fact, 
the  novelist  is  rarely  accurate,  and  imaginative  his- 
tory, lacking  the  deliberate  purpose  of  the  profes- 
sional romancer,  generally  lacks  even  the  vrai- 
semblance  which  the  romancer  is  able  to  impart  to 
his  narratives.  Similar  considerations  to  those 
which  Professor  Schliemann's  explorations  have 
furnished  in  support  of  a  historical  basis  for  the 
Iliad  constitute  a  much  stronger  argjument  for 
the  substantial  historicity  of  the  story  of  the  Exodus 
and  the  encampment  in  the  wilderness. 

It  may,  then,  be  assumed  that  Moses  was  one 
of  the  people  of  Israel ;  that  in  his  education  he 

^  For  illustration  of  this  geographical  confirmation  of  the  He- 
brew history  of  the  Exodus  and  the  march  to  Sinai  and  thence 
to  the  Promised  Land,  see  The  Desert  of  the  Exodus,  by  E.  H. 
Palmer,  M.  A.,  especially  chap.  xxv.  He  thus  (at  p.  434)  sums  up 
his  conclusions  :  "  We  cannot,  perhaps,  ever  hope  to  identify  all 
the  stations  and  localities  mentioned  in  the  Bible  account  of  the 
Exodus,  but  enough  has  been  recovered  to  enable  us  to  trace  the 
more  important  lines  of  march,  and  to  follow  the  Israelites  in 
their  several  journeys  from  Egypt  to  Sinai,  from  Sinai  to  Kadesh, 
and  from  thence  to  the  Prouiisad  Land." 


102      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

received  all  that  the  most  civilized  state  of  his  time 
could  give  him  ;  that,  by  birth,  by  education,  and 
by  nature,  he  had  the  qualities  of  a  prophet  and  a 
statesman  ;  and  that,  being  so  equipped,  he  led  the 
people  of  Israel  out  of  Egypt  to  the  great  plain  at 
the  foot  of  Mount  Sinai,  where  he  gave  them  their 
constitution.  That  constitution  is  contained  in 
what  is  admitted  by  all  (iritics  —  the  conservative 
and  progressive,  traditional  and  modern  —  to  be 
the  oldest  complete  book  in  the  Bible.^  It  con- 
sists of  the  twentieth,  twenty-first,  twenty-second, 
twenty-third  chapters  of  Exodus,  and,  I  think,  of 
the  first  eight  verses  also  of  the  twenty-fourth.  It 
is  probable  also  that,  if  the  nineteenth  chapter  is 
not  a  part  of  the  Book  of  the  Covenant,  it  embodies 
essential  principles  which  belong  to  the  same  age.^ 

1  Not  the  oldest  writiug,  —  the  Song  of  Deborah,  for  example, 
is  prohahly  older,  —  but  the  oldest  book  in  the  Bible.  It  is 
known  as  the  Book  of  the  Covenant. 

^  It  is  true  that  some  critics  attribute  the  book,  not  only  in  its 
present  form  but  in  its  essential  contents,  to  an  age  much  later 
than  that  of  Moses.  Wellhausen  argues  against  the  Mosaic  au- 
thorship of  the  Decalogue.  History  of  Israel,  Julius  Wellhausen, 
p.  439.  Dr.  Budde  thus  states  the  argument  from  the  evolution- 
ist's point  of  view  :  "  Many  scholars,  while  relinquishing  every- 
thing else,  have  tried  to  save  the  Ten  Commandments,  the 
'  Mosaic  '  moral  law,  for  these  oldest  times.  Now  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments base  all  their  demands  on  the  nature  of  the  God  of 
Israel.  If,  then,  they  really  did  come  from  this  period,  it  appears 
that  there  existed,  even  in  the  earliest  times,  a  conception  of  God 
so  sublime  that  hardly  anything  could  have  remained  for  the 
prophets  to  do.  This  of  itself  should  suffice  to  show  the  impossi- 
bility of  the  Mosaic  origin  of  the  Ten  Commandments."  Beligion 
of  Israel  to  the  Exile,  Karl  Budde,  D.  D.,  p.  32.  This  argument 
ignores  the  existence  of  geniuses  in  human  history  who  anticipate 


THE   BOOK    OF   THE    COVENANT  103 

At  this  point  let  the  reader  lay  down  this  volume 
and  read  through  this  Book  of  the  Covenant ;  it 

their  fellows  and  proclaim  truths  to  which  the  race  only  gradu- 
ally arrives.  Prof.  William  James  has  well  said  that  "  the  evo- 
lutionary view  of  history,  when  it  denies  the  vital  importance  of 
individual  initiative,  is,  then,  an  utterly  vague  and  unscientific 
conception,  a  lapse  from  modern  scientific  determinism  into  the 
most  ancient  oriental  fatalism."  The  Will  to  Believe,  p.  245. 
That  Moses  was  a  spiritual  genius,  with  such  power  of  individual 
initiative,  all  Hebrew  history  combines  to  testify,  and  most  schol- 
ars concur  in  believing  its  testimony.  So  even  Wellhausen  :  ''  The 
time  of  Moses  is  invariably  regarded  as  the  properly  creative 
period  in  Israel's  history.  .  .  .  The  prophets  who  came  after 
gave,  it  is  true,  greater  distinctness  to  the  peculiar  character  of 
the  Nation  ;  but  they  did  not  make  it,  on  the  contrary,  it  made 
them."  History  of  Israel,  Julius  Wellhausen,  p.  432.  This  does 
not  seem  to  me  to  consist  with  his  apparent  theory  that  the  Ten 
Commandments  have  a  late  prophetic  origin ;  because  the  Ten 
Commandments  are  unmistakably  the  real  moral  making  of  the 
Nation,  if  not  as  a  formal  code  certainly  as  a  system  of  moral 
principles.  A  correspondent  writing  to  me  objects  to  the  state- 
ment that  the  Book  of  the  Covenant  is  the  oldest  book  in  the 
Bible.  How  can  it  be,  he  asks,  "  as  old  even  as  Deuteronomy, 
when  the  latter  (chapter  v.)  knows  no  more  powerful  sanction  for 
the  observance  of  the  Sabbath  than  the  memory  of  the  unresting 
slavery  in  Egypt  ?  Surely,  if,  with  the  writer  of  the  Book  of  the 
Covenant,  the  Deuteronomist  had  known  any  story  of  creation- 
rest,  he  could  not  have  failed  to  adduce  that  far  more  tremen- 
dous sanction."  This  argument  assumes  that  the  Ten  Command- 
ments existed  originally  in  the  form  in  which  they  are  contained 
in  the  Book  of  the  Covenant.  As  stated  in  the  text,  I  believe  that 
the  explanatory  matter  was  added  in  both  editions  of  the  Ten 
Commandments  (Exod.  xx.  1-17  ;  Deut.  v.  6-21)  at  a  later  date; 
it  is  only  the  essential  principles  in  the  form  given  below  which 
were  probably  Mosaic.  The  Mosaic  authorship  of  the  Book  of 
the  Covenant,  not  in  its  literary  form  but  in  its  essential  prin- 
ciples, and  especially  of  the  Ten  Commandments,  is  maintained 
and  emphasized  by  Ewald  :  "  There  is  no  well-founded  doubt 
that  the  Ten  Commandments  are  derived  from  Moses,  in  their 


104      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   UEBREWS 

will  not  take  him  long.  Let  him  then  endeavor 
to  imagine  the  mental  and  moral  condition  of  the 
people  to  whom  its  instructions  were  imparted. 
They  had  just  emerged  from  a  slavery  which  had 
stifled  any  independent  moral  or  intellectual  devel- 
opment ;  in  which  they  had  been  subject  to  a  peo- 
ple whom  Herodotus  describes  as  "  religious  to  ex- 
cess, far  beyond  any  other  race  of  men  "  ;  ^  a  people 
who  made  an  elaborate  sacrificial  system  a  means 

general  import,  their  present  order,  and  even  in  their  peculiar 
language.  They  are  genuinely  Mosaic  in  essence,  and  comprise 
the  highest  truths  which  the  new  religion  hrought  into  the  world, 
in  so  far  as  they  may  be  summed  up  in  a  few  short  sentences  for 
everybody,  and  are  expressed  with  so  much  precision  and  order 
as  of  itself  to  indicate  a  superior  mind.  Their  arrangement  pos- 
sesses the  most  antique  simplicity  imaginable,  and  has  itself  be- 
come the  model  of  many  similar  series  of  laws,  in  groups  of  five 
and  ten.  They  are  moreover  twice  (Exod.  xx.  and  Deut.  v.) 
placed  at  the  head  of  all  expositions  of  the  Mosaic  religion ;  and 
in  both  cases  distinctly  marked  as  most  sacred  and  peculiar 
words.  And  whereas  there  are  several  peculiar  expressions,  even 
in  the  ten  very  brief  sentences  of  which  they  undoubtedly  origi- 
nally consisted,  both  the  copies  now  extant  insert  several  addi- 
tions and  explanations  —  an  infallible  criterion  of  a  very  ancient 
text  variously  interpreted  in  after-times  —  a  text  in  this  respect 
without  a  parallel  in  the  Old  Testament."  History  of  Israel,  Hein- 
rich  Ewald,  vol.  ii.  p.  19.  This  view  of  the  date  of  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments is  entertained  by  the  majority  of  the  modem  scholars 
of  the  evangelical  liberal  school :  by  W.  Robertson  Smith,  The 
Old  Testament  in  the  Jewish  Church,  pp.  335-338 ;  by  Charles  A. 
Briggs,  The  Study  of  Holy  Scripture,  p.  118 ;  by  A.  B.  Bruce, 
Apologetics,  chap.  iv.  pp.  208-215  ;  by  Arthur  Penrhyn  Stanley, 
Lectures  on  the  History  of  the  Jeivish  Church,  lect.  vii.  pp.  194-198 ; 
and  apparently  by  S.  R.  Driver,  Introduction  to  the  Literature  of 
the  Old  Testament,  pp.  31-35. 

^  Herodotus,  quoted  in  Kawlinson's  History  of  Egypt,  i.  320. 


THE  BOOK   OF   THE   COVENANT  105 

at  once  of  glorifying  the  gods  and  of  supporting 
and  enriching  the  priests  ;  a  people  who  knew  no- 
thing of  the  esoteric  doctrine  of  monotheism,  the 
knowledge  of  which  was  sedulously  guarded  from 
the  uninitiated  ;  who  worshiped  innumerable  in- 
carnations and  manifestations  of  the  deity,  from 
the  sun  to  the  sacred  beetle  ;  whose  fear  of  future 
hell  and  hopes  of  future  heaven  gave  to  the  priest- 
hood a  power  which  they  were  not  slow  to  use ; 
whose  moral  life  indicates  that  the  ethical  precepts 
of  their  sacred  books  were  not  much  better  known 
than  the  spiritual  monotheism  of  their  specially  illu- 
minated philosophers ;  and  who  were  dominated 
by  a  priesthood  which  controlled  literature,  educa- 
tion, science,  and  politics  in  the  interest  of  their 
own  ecclesiastical  order,  and  were  the  master  spir- 
its in  every  event  of  life,  public  and  private.^ 

The  simplicity  of  the  religious  and  ethical  ideas 
contained  in  the  Book  of  the  Covenant  is  the 
more  striking  when  contrasted  with  the  ideals  and 
practices  of  the  country  in  which  Israel  had  so  long 
dwelt.  The  book  is  as  remarkable  for  what  it 
omits  as  for  what  it  contains.  It  is  practically 
silent  respecting  any  future  life,  any  sacrificial  sys- 
tem, any  ecclesiastical  ritual,  any  organized  priest- 
hood, any  form  of  what  was  then  universally  and 
is  even  now  generally  termed  religious  duty.  It  is 
purely  spiritual  in  its  conception  of  God  and  of 
his  worship,  and  wholly  non-ritualistic  and  almost 

^  See  Bawlinson's  History  of  Egypt,  i.  chap.  x. ;   compare  chap. 


106      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE  HEBREWS 

exclusively  ethical  in  its  interpretation  of  the  divine 
will.  Its  fundamental  principles  are  incorporated 
in  ten  commandments,  which  in  their  original  form 
probably  read  substantially  as  follows :  ^  — 

I  am  Jehovah  thy  God  which  brought  thee  out  of  the 
land  of  Egypt,  the  house  of  servants. 

Thou  shalt  have  no  other  gods. 

Thou  shalt  not  make  any  graven  image. 

Thou  shalt  not  take  the  name  of  Jehovah  thy  God  in 
vain. 

Remember  the  Sabbath  day  to  keep  it  holy.'' 

Honor  thy  father  and  thy  mother. 

Thou  shalt  not  kill. 

Thou  shalt  not  steal. 

Thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery. 

Thou  shalt  not  bear  false  witness  against  thy  neigh- 
bor. 

Thou  shalt  not  covet. 

The  rest  of  the  Book  of  the  Covenant  is  little 
more  than  an  illustration  and  an  application  of 
these  principles  to  specific  conditions  in  society,  or 
a  modification  or  amelioration  of  some  of  those 
conditions,  such  as  slavery,  in  accordance  with  the 
spirit  of  these  principles.  Some  of  these  applica- 
tions clearly  belong  to  a  later  date,  since  they  would 

^  This  is  the  view  of  most  modem  scholars,  such  as  Ewald, 
Driver,  Briggs,  Stanley,  Bruce,  and  others.  For  the  grounds  on 
•which  this  opinion  is  based  the  reader  is  referred  to  these  authors 
as  cited  in  the  preceding  notes. 

-  That  is,  set  apart.  The  subsequent  additions  undoubtedly 
truly  interpret  its  purpose  —  to  secure  rest  to  a  people  who  as 
slaves  had  lived  in  perpetual  servile  drudgery. 


THE   BOOK   OF   THE   COVENANT  107 

be  wholly  inapplicable  to  the  migratory  condition 
of  Israel  while  dwelling  in  tents  in  the  wilderness.-^ 
But  the  fundamental  principles  of  this  Hebraic 
constitution  are  as  radical  as  they  are  simple,  and 
are  equally  applicable  to  all  epochs  and  all  peoples. 
Leaving  their  theological  and  ecclesiastical  aspects 
to  be  considered  in  the  following  article,  I  propose 
in  this  article  to  state  the  political  aspects  of  these 
principles,  and  to  show  how  the  political  life  of  the 
nation  was  grounded  in  and  developed  out  of  them. 

The  fundamental  principle  of  this  constitution 
is  that  religion  is  the  basis  of  the  state  and  the 
ground  of  authority  for  law ;  that,  in  other  words, 
all  just  law  is  divine  in  its  origin,  nature,  and  sanc- 
tions. 

There  are  two  contrasted  conceptions  respecting 
the  basis  of  the  state  and  the  ground  of  authority 
for  law  which  have  claimed  the  suffrages  of  man- 
kind. The  first  is  the  doctrine  that  authority  rests 
upon  power.  Law,  according  to  this  oj^inion,  is  a 
command  or  series  of  commands,  given  by  one  man 
or  body  of  men,  to  another  man  or  body  of  men. 
It  is  law  because  the  person  or  persons  issuing  it 
have  power  to  punish  the  person  or  persons  to 
whom  it  is  issued,  for  disobedience.  Of  this  con- 
ception of  law  John  Austin  may  be  regarded  as 
the  chief  historical  exponent.  "  A  command,"  he 
says,  "  is  an  order  issued  by  a  superior  to  an  infe- 
rior.    It  is  a  signification  of  desire  distinguished 

^  E.  g.,  chap,  xxii.,  5,  6,  7.  There  were  no  vineyards,  no 
standing  corn,  and  no  houses  in  the  wilderness. 


108      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF    THE   HEBREWS 

by  this  peculiarity,  —  that  the  party  to  whom  it  is 
directed  is  liable  to  evil  from  the  other,  in  case  he 
comply  not  with  the  desire.  .  .  .  The  evil  is  called 
a  sanction.)  and  the  command,  or  duty,  is  said  to 
be  sa?ictioned  by  the  chance  of  incurring  the  evil. 
.  .  .  All  commands,  however,  are  not  laws.  That 
term  is  reserved  for  those  commands  which  oblijre 
generally  to  the  performance  of  acts  of  a  class." 
These  principles  lead  to  and  are  incorporated  in 
the  following  definitions :  "  (1)  Laws,  being  com- 
mands, emanate  from  a  determinate  source ;  (2) 
Every  sanction  is  an  evil  annexed  to  a  command  ; 
(3)  Every  duty  implies  a  command,  and  chiefly 
means  obnoxiousness  to  the  evils  annexed  to  com- 
mands." ^  This  is  in  effect  a  philosophical  state- 
ment of  the  doctrine  popularly  embodied  in  the 
maxim,  "  Might  makes  right."  The  right  of  the 
superior  to  command  depends  upon  his  power  to 
enforce  his  commands.  Notwithstanding  the  high 
authority  for  it,  it  is  none  other  than  the  philoso- 
phy which  underlies  all  despotism. 

In  striking  contrast  to  this  is  the  philosophy 
implied  in  the  parenthetic  statement  in  the  Decla- 
ration of  Independence  that  "  government  rests 
upon  the  consent  of  the  governed."  Of  the  philo- 
sophy embodied  in  this  maxim  Rousseau  is  the  ablest 
modern  exponent.  He  taught  that  man  was  origi- 
nally in  a  state  of  nature,  which  was  a  state  of 
absolute  freedom ;  that  in  this  freedom  men  were 

^  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  article  Law.  See  also  Maine  on 
Ancient  Law,  pp.  6,  7. 


THE  BOOK   OF   THE   COVENANT  109 

brought  into  continual  conflict  of  interests  and 
consequent  disadvantages ;  that  they,  therefore, 
consented  to  surrender  some  of  this  freedom  for 
the  advantages  which  an  orderly  government  would 
bring  with  it,  and  that  this  imaginary  agreement, 
or  "  social  contract,"  was  the  basis  of  all  just  gov- 
ernment.^ 

If  the  first  theory  is  that  which  underlies  despot- 
ism, the  second  is  that  which  underlies  anarchy.^ 
Upon  the  theory  of  the  "  social  contract "  there  is 
really  no  such  thing  as  authority.  Law  is  simply 
a  form  of  consent,  or  at  least  derives  all  its  author- 


^  For  a  good  critical  account  of  Kousseau's  doctrine  of  the  So- 
cial Contract,  see  Rousseau,  by  John  Morley,  vol.  ii.  chap.  iii.  See 
also,  for  a  briefer  description  of  it  by  more  hostile  critics,  A  Cen- 
tury of  Revolution,  by  William  S.  Lilly,  chap,  i.,  and  Popular 
Government,  by  Sir  Henry  S.  Maine,  pp.  154—162. 

2  And  anarchy  is  only  another  form  of  despotism  ;  the  despot- 
ism of  the  many  in  lieu  of  that  of  the  one  or  of  the  few.  See  this 
abundantly  illustrated  in  Taine's  French  Revolution,  book  i.  To 
this  effect  De  Tocqueville  bears  eloquent  testimony  :  "'  If  the  abso- 
lute power  of  a  majority  were  to  be  substituted,  by  democratic 
nations,  for  all  the  different  powers  which  checked  or  retarded 
overmuch  the  energy  of  individual  minds,  the  evil  would  only  have 
changed  character.  Men  would  not  have  found  the  means  of  in- 
dependent life ;  they  would  simply  have  discovered  (no  easy  task) 
a  new  physiognomy  of  servitude.  There  is,  —  and  I  cannot  repeat 
it  too  often,  —  there  is  here  matter  for  profound  reflection  to  those 
who  look  on  freedom  of  thought  as  a  holy  thing,  and  who  hate 
not  only  the  despot,  but  despotism.  For  myself,  when  I  feel  the 
hand  of  power  lie  heavy  on  my  brow,  I  care  but  little  to  know 
who  oppresses  me  ;  and  I  am  not  the  more  disposed  to  pass 
beneath  the  yoke  because  it  is  held  out  to  me  by  the  arms  of  a 
million  of  men."  Democracy  in  America,  Alexis  De  Tocqueville» 
pp.  12,  13. 


110      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE   OF   THE   HEBREWS 

ity  from  a  consent,  real  or  implied.  The  maxim 
that  "  government  rests  on  the  consent  of  the  gov- 
erned "  still  continues  popular ;  but  the  philosophy 
of  which  it  is  an  expression  has  long  since  been 
abandoned  by  all  historical  and  philosophical  stu- 
dents. There  never  was  such  a  state  of  nature  as 
Rousseau  imagines  ;  there  never  was  such  a  social 
contract  as  he  has  conceived.  The  earlier  stages 
of  life  are  not  those  of  liberty,  but  those  of  abso- 
lutism. As  Rousseau's  theory  has  no  basis  in  his- 
tory, so  it  has  none  in  analogy.  The  government 
of  the  father  does  not  depend  on  the  consent  of 
the  children,  nor  that  of  the  teacher  on  the  con- 
sent of  the  pupil,  nor  that  of  God  on  the  consent  of 
men.  No  more  does  the  government  of  the  state 
depend  on  the  consent  of  the  citizens.  For  America 
the  notion  that  government  rests  on  the  consent  of 
the  governed  was  forever  demolished  by  the  Civil 
War. 

The  basic  principle  of  the  Hebrew  government 
was  neither  the  authority  of  one  man  over  other 
men  because  he  has  power  to  enforce  his  com- 
mands, nor  the  consent  of  other  men  to  accept  the 
will  of  one  man  —  that  is,  the  consent  of  the 
governed ;  it  was  the  authority  of  Almighty  God. 
There  are  certain  great  natural  laws  —  of  heat,  of 
light,  of  electricity,  of  gravitation.  Men  neither 
make  them  nor  unmake  them,  mend  them  nor 
modify  them.  They  must  obey  them,  and  then  they 
can  use  them ;  but  they  violate  them  at  their  peril. 
So  there  are  laws  of   health  which   men   neither 


THE   BOOK    OF   THE    COVENANT  111 

make  nor  unmake,  mend  nor  modify.  If  we  obey 
them,  we  have  health ;  if  we  disobey  them,  we 
sicken  and  die.  The  fundamental  principle  of  the 
Hebraic  commonwealth  was  that  there  are  great 
moral  laws  by  which  human  society  is  bound 
together.  These  laws  men  neither  make  nor  un- 
make, mend  nor  modify.  They  are  not  dependent 
upon  the  will  of  monarch,  oligarchy,  aristocracy, 
or  public  assembly.  They  are  eternal,  absolute, 
immutable.  We  must  find  out  what  they  are  and 
obey  them,  or  suffer  the  penalty  of  our  ignorance 
or  our  willfulness.  "  The  seat  of  law,"  says 
Hooker,  "  is  in  the  bosom  of  Almighty  God." 
This  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Hebraic  common- 
wealth. Neither  Czar  nor  Council  of  Ten  nor  Brit- 
ish Parliament  nor  American  Congress  can  make 
law.  All  that  man  can  do,  whatever  governmental 
mechanism  he  adopts,  is  to  ascertain  what  are  the 
laws  of  social  order,  and  apply  them  to  the  pro- 
blems of  his  own  time  and  his  own  community. 
This  is  the  first  and  fundamental  principle  of  the 
Hebraic  commonwealth ;  the  authority  for  law  is 
neither  the  power  of  one  man  to  enforce  his  will 
over  other  men  nor  the  consent  of  the  governed ; 
it  is  the  authority  of  the  one  and  only  Lawgiver. 
If  by  our  governmental  organization  we  ascertain 
what  the  law  of  the  social  order  is,  we  shall  do 
well ;  if  we  fail  to  ascertain,  or,  ascertaining,  fail 
to  obey,  we  shall  do  ill. 

The  second  principle  or  congeries  of  principles 
in  the  Hebraic  constitution  is  found  in  its  state- 


112      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

ment  of  the  essential  laws  of  the  social  order. 
These  are  very  simple  and  very  vital.  They  were 
stated  in  the  Ten  Commandments  in  concrete 
forms,  but  they  are  concrete  forms  of  great  prin- 
ciples which  may  be  restated  somewhat  thus : 
Spiritual  reverence  for  God  ;  preservation  of  some 
time  free  from  the  drudgery  of  toil  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  higher  nature  ;  respect  for  parents  ; 
regard  for  the  rights  of  person,  of  the  family,  of 
property,  of  reputation  ;  and,  last,  this  respect  real 
and  spontaneous,  not  formal  and  enforced. 

When  a  community  bases  government  on  either 
the  power  of  the  governor,  leading  to  despotism,  or 
on  the  consent  of  the  governed,  leading  to  anarchy, 
it  violates  the  first  of  these  laws.  When  it  sub- 
stitutes symbols  for  realities,  promotes  and  en- 
courages the  spirit  of  irreverence,  devotes  all  its 
energies  to  material  advancement,  forgetting  all 
need  of  and  all  ministry  to  the  higher  life,  and 
makes  every  day  a  workday,  and  wealth  the  mea- 
sure of  prosperity,  it  violates  the  second,  third, 
and  fourth  laws.  When,  through  the  disregard  of 
parents,  it  suffers  the  disintegration  of  the  family, 
which  is  itself  the  unit  of  organized  society,  and  so 
prepares  the  way  for  widespread  social  disorder,  it 
violates  the  fifth  law.  When  it  fails  to  afford 
protection  of  the  innocent  from  the  oppressions  of 
the  strong  or  the  violence  of  mobs,  or  suffers  such 
industrial  conditions  as  destroy  men  and  women 
and  children  before  their  time  in  mining  and  man- 
ufacturing industries,  it   violates    the   sixth    law. 


THE  BOOK   OF   THE   COVENANT  113 

When  it  permits  the  practice  of  polygamy,  or  en- 
courages licentiousness  in  legalized  forms  by  free- 
dom of  divorce,  it  violates  the  seventh  law.  When 
it  taxes  a  helpless  and  prostrate  people  under 
forms  of  law,  giving  them  by  law  none  of  the 
benefits  for  which  governments  are  organized,  it 
violates  the  eighth  law.  When  it  allows  honored 
citizens  whose  life  has  been  devoted  to  the  public 
service  of  the  community  to  be  slandered  by  a 
sensational  and  unprincipled  press,  and  continues 
to  give  the  press  its  support,  it  violates  the  ninth 
law.  When  it  depends  wholly  or  chiefly  on  force 
to  maintain  these  laws,  failing  to  furnish  such 
education  as  will  make  obedience  to  them  voluntary 
and  spontaneous,  it  violates  the  tenth  law.  These 
are  the  fundamental  laws  of  human  life.  Their 
maintenance  is  essential  to  social  order.  No  so- 
called  laws  are  just  which  do  not  work  in  harmony 
with  them. 

These  ethical  and  spiritual  laws,  as  simple  as 
they  are  fundamental,  are  easily  apprehended  by 
mankind.  Their  sanction  is  in  the  universal  con- 
science. This  is  the  third  principle  of  the  Mosaic 
constitution.  The  force  of  these  laws  does  not  lie 
primarily  in  the  power  of  the  human  governor  to 
enforce  it ;  nor  does  it  lie  in  the  consent  of  the 
governed ;  It  lies  in  the  inherent  authority  of 
divine  law  and  in  the  sanction  given  to  that  law  by 
human  conscience.  This  principle  is  recognized 
in  the  history  of  the  giving  of  the  Ten  Command- 
ments.    Moses,  it  is  said,  came  down  from  Mount 


114      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

Sinai,  submitted  to  the  people  the  question  whether 
they  would  accept  Jehovah  as  their  king  and  his 
will  as  their  law,  and  *'  all  the  people  answered 
together  and  said,  All  that  Jehovah  hath  spoken 
we  will  do."  This  acceptance  by  the  people  of 
the  divine  constitution  gives  to  the  Book  of  the 
Covenant,  which  contains  the  Ten  Commandments, 
its  name ;  gives,  indeed,  to  the  collection  of  books 
in  which  that  Book  of  the  Covenant  is  found  the 
ancient  title,  the  "Old  Testament,"  or  "Old 
Covenant."  Throughout  their  history  the  relation 
between  God  and  Israel  was  treated  as  a  covenant 
relation.  The  prophetic  indictments  of  Israel 
were  not  merely  because  they  had  violated  the 
divine  law,  but  because  they  had  broken  their 
covenant  with  their  God.  The  law  was  not  im- 
posed upon  them  ;  it  was  accepted  by  them  ;  its 
authority  was  divine,  and  they  had  recognized 
their  obligations  to  obey  it.  This  fact  is  written 
large  in  Hebrew  history.  There  are  no  threats  of 
punishment  in  a  future  life  ;  there  are  no  promises 
of  rewards  in  a  future  life  ;  no  priesthood  is  vested 
with  power  to  enforce  the  law  by  appeals  to  super- 
stitious fears,  as  the  law  was  enforced  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  Nor  was  there  permitted  to  Israel  in  its 
governmental  ideals  a  standing  army  to  enforce 
against  a  recalcitrant  people  the  laws  which  they 
had  made  their  own  by  their  acceptance  of  them. 
"  Out  of  Zion  shall  come  forth  the  law,"  said  one 
of  Israel's  great  prophets.  That  is,  the  obliga- 
tion of  law  was  a  religious  obligation  recognized 


THE  BOOK    OF  THE   COVENANT  115 

by  the  conscience  of  the  people  to  whom  it  was 
given. 

These  three  principles,  then,  were  at  the  foun- 
dation of  the  Hebraic  commonwealth :  first,  that 
reverence  for  God  and  acceptance  of  his  authority 
is  the  basis  of  a  free  state ;  second,  that  the  gen- 
eral laws  of  the  social  order  are  very  simple, 
though  their  applications  may  be  diverse  and  com- 
plicated ;  third,  that  for  a  peaceful  and  a  free 
people  acceptance  of  these  laws  is  necessary,  and 
in  a  free  commonwealth  they  must  depend  pri- 
marily for  their  support  on  the  conscience  of  the 
people  themselves.  On  these  principles  as  a  foun- 
dation was  built  the  Hebraic  commonwealth ;  his- 
tory has  proved  them  to  be  the  foundation  of  all 
truly  free  governments.  How  they  were  applied 
in  the  Hebrew  commonwealth  will  be  the  subject 
for  consideration  in  the  next  chapter. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE   DEUTERONOMIC   CODE 

It  is  clear  from  the  subsequent  history  of  the 
Hebrews  that  only  the  foundations  of  the  national 
structure  were  laid  during  the  lifetime  of  Moses. 
The  superstructure  was  not  instantly  reared  thereon, 
but  was  the  product  of  centuries  of  national  growth. 
It  does  not  come  within  the  province  of  this  volume 
to  trace  in  detail  the  national  history  of  Israel. 
The  general  outlines  of  that  history  are  familiar  to 
every  reader  of  the  English  Bible.  For  three  cen- 
turies the  tribes  existed  in  scattered  and  separate 
communities,  without  a  constitution,  an  organized 
government,  or  effective  law.  Leaders  arose  from 
time  to  time  called  "  judges,"  though  their  func- 
tion was  executive  rather  than  judicial,  and  military 
rather  than  executive.  These  leaders  were  not 
elected  by  the  people,  nor  did  they  inherit  their 
office.  They  assumed  authority  by  reason  of  some 
force  or  vigor  of  character  which  made  them  effi- 
cient in  protecting  the  people  against  foreign  foes, 
or  made  them  the  subjects  of  popular  admiration 
by  reason  of  special  feats  of  valor.^     Much  of  the 

1  "  Their  authority  was  divine,  or,  as  we  should  say,  moral,  in  its 
character ;  it  rested  upon  that  spontaneous  recognition  of  the  idea 


THE   DEUTERONOMIC   CODE  117 

time  the  tribes  were  subject  to  predatory  raids  by 
surrounding  nations  ;  part  of  the  time  they  were 
in  absolute  subjection  to  cruel  and  unscrupulous 
foes.  Within  the  tribes  themselves  there  was  prac- 
tically no  law.  "  Every  man  did  what  was  right 
in  his  own  eyes."  At  length,  under  one  of  these 
leaders  —  Saul  —  the  tribes  were  united  in  a  vigor- 
ous and  successful  campaign  ;  under  his  successor, 
David,  they  were  organized  into  a  united  kingdom  ; 
and  this  kingdom,  under  his  son  Solomon,  grew  in 
size,  in  wealth,  and  in  apparent  prosperity.  But 
the  spirit  of  liberty  in  a  people  whose  blood  and 
whose  essential  principles  united  to  make  them 
jealous  of  their  freedom,  the  spirit  of  restlessness 
which  was  inherited  from  their  colonial  days,  and 
the  grievous  exactions  levied  upon  them  by  a  king 
who  lived  in  almost  Oriental  splendor,  induced  re- 
bellion after  his  death.  In  the  reign  of  his  suc- 
cessor ten  of  the  twelve  tribes  seceded  ;  the  nation 
was  rent  in  twain  ;  a  new  capital  was  established ; 
an  idolatrous  worship  imitating  that  of  Egypt  was 
set  up  in  Samaria  for  the  seceding  tribes  ;  and  the 
history  of  the  Jews  flows  thereafter  in  a  divided 
stream  as  that  of  Israel  and  Judah.  After  two 
hundred  years  of  increasing  profligacy,  Israel,  or 
more  accurately  a  large  proportion  of  its  popula- 
tion, was  carried  away  captive  by  the  Assyrians, 
and  their  country  was  repopulated  by  a  colony  from 
the  land  of  their  captors.     A  mongrel  popidation 

of  right  which,  though  unexpressed,  was  alive  and  working  among 
the  tribes."    The  History  of  Israel,  hy  Julius  Wellhausen,  p.  436.  , 


118      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

supplanted  tbe  tribes  of  Hebrew  origin,  a  hybrid 
religion  the  worship  of  Jehovah.^  The  two  re- 
maining tribes,  retaining  the  capital  and  the  temple, 
preserved  their  nationality  under  the  name  of 
Judah,  but,  changing  their  religion  with  the  chan- 
ging opinions  of  their  rulers,  outrivaled  their  sister 
Israel  in  corruption.^  This  corruption  reached  its 
climax  under  Manasseh,  the  fourteenth  king  of  the 
southern  kingdom.  His  reign  of  over  half  a  cen- 
tury was  characterized  not  only  by  the  establish- 
ment of  paganism  as  the  religion  of  the  state,  but 
by  a  consequent  reign  of  licentiousness  and  immo- 
rality impossible  to  describe  and  almost  impossible 
to  imagine.  The  worship  of  the  heavenly  bodies 
was  restored  ;  the  name  of  Moloch  became  a  com- 
mon oath  ;  human  sacrifice  was  reinstated  ;  there 
was  a  succession  of  small  furnaces  in  the  streets  for 
which  the  children  gathered  wood  and  in  which 
their  parents  baked  cakes  as  offerings  to  Astarte ; 
the  roofs  of  the  houses  were  converted  into  places 
of  worship  and  of  incense-burning  to  the  heathen 
gods  ;  the  temple  vessels  were  consecrated  to  Baal ; 
the  altar  in  front  of  the  temple  was  desecrated ; 
and  the  ark  itself  was  removed  from  the  Holy  of 
Holies.  An  attempt  made  by  faithfid  prophets 
to  stem  this  current  of  heathenism  was  met  by  a 
wholesale  religious  persecution  of  all  the  followers 
of  Jehovah,  and  by  a  reign  of  terror  against  all 
who  dared  remain  faithful  to  the  religion  of  their 

1  2  Kings  xvii. 

2  Jer.  iii.  11. 


THE  DEUTERONOMIC   CODE  119 

fathers.^  During  this  half-century  the  religious 
writings  as  well  as  the  religious  principles  of  the 
Jewish  nation  were  forgotten.  Such  ecclesiastical 
literature  as  had  grown  up  during  the  preceding 
centuries  was  kept  within  the  priestly  circles.  The 
people  knew  even  less  about  ecclesiasticism  then 
than  they  do  to-day. 

Then  it  was  that  an  unknown  prophet  arose, 
resolved  to  do  what  he  could  to  bring  Israel  back 
to  the  simple  religion  of  Moses.  Inspired  by  the 
teaching  of  preceding  prophets  of  his  own  nation, 
such  as  Isaiah  and  Micah,  and  perhaps  also  by 
echoes  of  the  prophecies  from  the  northern  king- 
dom of  such  men  as  Elijah,  Amos,  and  Hosea,  the 
unknown  gathered  together  whatever  there  was  of 
ancient  law  in  manuscript  and  of  ancient  counsel 
in  current  traditions,  and  rewrote  the  laws  of 
Moses,  codifying  both  manuscript  and  tradition, 
modifying  both  and  adding  to  them  new  regula- 
tions in  the  spirit  of  the  old,  and  new  applications 
of  the  old  to  the  conditions  and  problems  of  his 
own  time.  The  discovery  of  his  writing  would 
have  insured  the  death  of  the  author  and  the  de- 
struction of  the  manuscript.  The  temple  was  still 
a  literary  centre,  and  somewhere  in  its  archives 
the  prophet  hid  the  book.  Here,  after  Manasseh's 
death,  the  manuscript  was  discovered,  brought 
to  the  new  and  reforming  king,  Josiah,  accepted 
by  him   as  a  divinely   inspired   intei-pretation    of 

^  2  Kings  xxi.  1-10 ;  xxiii.  4  ;  xxiv.  4 ;  2  Chron.  xxxiii.  1-10 ; 
Isa.  Ixv.  3  ;  Jer.  vii.  17, 18,  31 ;  viii.  2  ;  xiv.  13  ;  Zeph.  i.  5. 


120      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

Mosaism,  and  made  the  inspiration  and  guide  of 
what  was  both  a  great  religious  revival  and  a  great 
political  reformation.  To  this  codification,  by  an 
unknown  prophet  of  the  seventh  century,  of  Mosaic 
precepts  and  principles,  additions  were  made  sub- 
sequently by  other  writers.  The  whole  constitutes 
the  Book  of  Deuteronomy.  How  much  of  it  is 
truly  Mosaic,  how  much  of  it  was  contributed  by 
the  unknown  author  in  the  reign  of  Manasseh,  how 
much  is  of  even  subsequent  date,  it  is  not  possible 
now  to  determine  with  absolute  accuracy,  nor  is  it 
necessary.  The  value  of  the  Book  of  Deuteron- 
omy does  not  depend  upon  its  Mosaic  authorship. 
Its  value  dejDcnds  upon  the  fact  that  it  is  the  ex- 
pression of  the  faithful  few  in  a  degenerate  age  to 
the  fundamental  principles  of  the  founder  of  their 
church  and  their  nation. 

I  must  refer  the  reader  to  other  books  for  the 
reasons  which  have  led  scholars  to  the  conclusion 
respecting  the  nature  of  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy 
here  so  briefly  stated.^  Those  reasons  lie  partly  in 
the  structure  of  the  book  itself.  It  consists  in  form 
of  at  least  three  distinct  speeches,  together  with 
two  poems,  all  of  them  put  into  the  mouth  of 
Moses.  We  must  either  suppose  that  Moses  wrote 
these  orations,  or  that  they  were  taken  down  ver- 

^  The  reader  who  desires  a  more  thorough  discussion  of  the 
character,  contents,  date,  and  autliorship  of  the  Book  of  Deuter- 
onomy will  find  it  in  Professor  George  F.  Moore's  article  on 
Deuteronomy  in  the  Cyclopoedia  Biblica,  and  in  Dr.  Driver's 
Introduction  to  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy  in  the  International 
Critical  Commentary. 


THE  DEUTERONOMIC   CODE  121 

batim  by  some  contemporaneous  reporter  and  then 
miraculously  preserved  through  the  intervening 
ages ;  or  else,  as  the  modern  scholar  does,  that  this 
form  was  employed  by  a  later  prophet  in  accord- 
ance with  the  custom  of  his  times,  to  give  dramatic 
effect  to  teaching  which  he  intended  should  embody 
the  spirit  of  Mosaic  prophecy  in  its  application  to 
a  later  age.  It  depends  partly  on  the  way  in  which 
the  laws  in  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy  fit  the  re- 
forms initiated  by  Josiah,  which  are  declared  by 
the  historian  to  have  been  based  upon  a  law-book 
found  in  the  temple.  It  depends  partly  on  the 
title  of  the  book  itself,  which  signifies  the  "  second 
law,"  or  "second  giving  of  the  law,"  a  title  which, 
derived  apparently  from  the  earliest  ages,  at  least 
indicates  that  from  the  earliest  ages  the  book  was 
regarded  as  a  second  or  supplementary  edition  of 
the  Mosaic  legislation. 

It  will  be  seen  from  this  brief  sketch  that  those 
are  mistaken  who  suppose  that  the  new  criticism 
regards  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy  as  a  pious  fraud. 
This  would,  indeed,  seem  to  me  to  be  an  impossible 
hypothesis.  Pious  frauds  have  been  perpetrated 
by  pious  men,  it  is  true,  but  always  either  in  some 
selfish  or  in  some  ecclesiastical  interest  —  that  is, 
either  for  the  benefit  of  the  writer  or  for  the 
advantage  of  some  churchly  organization.  An 
ethical  book  founded  upon  fraud  would  be  an 
anomaly  in  literature.  The  Book  of  Deuteronomy 
is  not  an  ecclesiastical  book ;  it  is  not  written  in 
the  interest  of  the  priesthood ;   it  is  essentially  an 


122      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

ethical  book.  Its  ethical  standards  are  noble,  its 
tone  throughont  pure  and  practical.  It  is  morally 
inconceivable  that  such  a  book  should  be  inspired 
by  dishonest  motives ;  equally  inconceivable  that  a 
great  moral  revolution,  like  that  wrought  in  the 
reign  of  Josiah,  should  be  inspired  by  a  pious 
fraud ;  and  the  modern  critic  does  not  regard  the 
Book  of  Deuteronomy  as  a  fraud.  Books  written 
by  one  man  in  the  name  and  phraseology  of  another 
are  not  uncommon  in  literature.  Defoe's  history 
of  the  plague  of  London  is  not  a  fraud  because  it 
purports  to  be  written  by  one  who  had  passed 
through  the  scenes  of  the  plague,  though  it  was  not 
written  for  fifty  years  afterward ;  Plato's  report  of 
the  dialogues  of  Socrates  is  not  a  fraud  because  no 
man  can  tell  how  much  of  the  thought  in  the  dia- 
logues belongs  to  Socrates  and  how  much  to  Plato. 
Seven  centuries  after  Moses  a  prophet  writes  a 
book,  in  which  he  incorporates  the  current  tradi- 
tions respecting  Mosaic  laws  ;  elaborates,  modifies, 
interprets,  and  applies  them  to  existing  social 
conditions ;  couches  them  in  the  language  of  the 
great  statesman  ;  after  a  fashion  of  historians  in 
all  ages  puts  them  dramatically  in  the  statesman's 
mouth  I  and  then,  as  if  to  prevent  any  reader  from 
imagining  that  he  intends  these  manuscripts  to  be 
taken  as  actual  rescripts  of  the  original  law,  de- 
scribes them  as  a  second  law.^  To  call  this  a  fraud 
is  to  confound  moral  distinctions  by  treating  a 
common  literary  method,  pursued  by  writers  in  all 
1  Deut.  xvii.  18,  Septuagint  Tersion. 


THE  DEUTERONOMIC   CODE  123 

ages  of  tlie  world  without  obloquy,  as  though  it 
were  a  literary  forgery.^ 

It  is  in  the  Book  of  the  Covenant  and  in  the 
Book  of  Deuteronomy  that  we  are  chiefly  to  find 
the  political  institutions  of  the  Hebrew  people, 
though  light  is  thrown  upon  those  institutions  by 
incidental  references  in  their  sacred  history.  Nor 
is  it  difficult  to  trace  the  institutions  which  grew 
up  in  the  eight  centuries  that  intervened  between 
these  two  publications,  back  to  the  essential  prin- 
ciples involved  in  the  Book  of  the  Covenant :  the 
religious  basis  of  the  state,  the  ethical  nature  of 
law,  and  its  sanction  in  the  conscience  of  the 
people. 

All  Oriental  nations  were  absolute  despotisms. 
In  the  Hebraic  commonwealth  the  three  depart- 
ments of  government,  the  executive,  the  legislative, 
and  the  judicial,  were  clearly  discriminated.  There 
were  two  representative  assemblies :  one  the  Jewish 
house  of  representatives,  known  as  the  Great  Con- 
gregation, which  reflected  the  popular  will ;  the 
other  a  smaller  body,  the  elders  of  the  tribe  or  the 
nation,  who  acted  as  counselors  of  the  executive, 
cooperated  in  making  treaties,  and  exercised  certain 
judicial  functions.  It  was  the  Great  Congregation 
that  on  the  repoi-t  of  the  twelve  spies  voted  not  to 

^  "  The  truth  that  '  the  law  came  by  Moses,'  that  the  foundation 
of  this  sacred  jurisprudence  was  laid  by  this  founder,  that  the 
germs  of  the  late  growth  proceeded  from  him,  is  not  subverted  by 
finding  that  from  one  period  to  another  there  was  a  gradual  ex- 
pansion." George  P.  Fisher,  D.  D.,  Address  before  International 
Congregational  Council,  Boston,  Sept.,  1899. 


124      LIFE   AND    LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

undertake  the  subjugation  of  Canaan,  inducted  into 
office  Josiah,  ratified  the  selection  of  Saul  as  king, 
carried  into  effect  the  proposal  of  Solomon  to 
establish  the  ark  of  the  Lord  at  Jerusalem. ^  It 
was  the  elders  who  made  treaties,  tried  capital 
offenses,  and  enforced  the  execution  of  the  laws. 
It  was  both  judicial  and  executive.^  There  was 
a  judiciary  who  were  apparently  elected  by  the 
people  themselves :  ^  who  were  forbidden  to  take 
fees  from  their  suitors  or  to  pay  any  regard  to  the 
social  standing  of  those  who  had  causes  before 
them ;  and  whose  authority,  it  is  clear  from  many 
instances  in  Jewish  history,  was  far  from  being 
merely  nominal.^  Executive  authority  was,  after 
the  time  of  Saul,  vested  in  a  king,  but  his  powers 
were  limited.  The  Jewish  monarch  was  a  consti- 
tutional monarch ;  no  foreigner  could  receive  the 
imperial  crown,  no  cavalry  could  be  organized  by 
the  king  to  harry  the  kingdom,  no  heavy  taxation 
could  be  levied  for  the  benefit  of  the  king  and  his 
court ;  he  could  establish  no  harem,  he  was  himself 
subject  to  the  laws  of  the  realm.^  That  these  re- 
strictions on  the  authority  of  the  king,  though 
sometimes  disregarded,  were  real,  not  merely  for- 
mal, is  evident  from  the  fact  that  so  unscrupulous 
a  despot  as  Ahab  was  not  able  to  accomplish  so 

1  Num.  xiv.  1-5,  10 ;  xxvii.  18-23 ;  1  Chron.  xiii.  1-8 ;  1  Kings 
viii.  1-5 ;  Num.  xi.  16,  17 ;  Josh.  ix.  18-21 ;  Jer.  xxvi.  10-16. 

2  Josh.  ix.  18-21 ;  Jer.  xxvi.  10-16. 

3  Exod.  xviii.  19-26  ;  Deut.  i.  9-14. 

*  Lev.  xix.  15 ;  xxiv.  22 ;  Deut.  i.  17  ;  xvi.  19 ;  Exod.  xxii.  21. 
s  Deut.  xvii.  14-20. 


THE  DEUTERONOMIC   CODE  125 

simple  an  act  of  despotism  as  the  unjust  absorption 
of  a  peasant's  estate  except  by  bribing  the  regularly 
constituted  judges  of  the  land.^  With  these  pro- 
visions for  the  protection  of  the  people  from  the 
despotic  power  of  their  rulers,  unparalleled  in  that 
period  of  history,  were  other  provisions  equally 
remarkable  for  their  justice  and  humanity.  Mr. 
Robert  Ingersoll  has  spoken  of  the  cruel  code  of 
Moses,  under  which  hundreds  of  crimes  were  pun- 
ished with  death.  In  point  of  fact,  only  twelve 
crimes  were  punished  with  death  under  this  code,^ 
whereas,  as  late  as  a.  d.  1600,  two  hundred  and 
sixty-three  were  punished  with  death  in  England. 
Attainder  was  forbidden,^  human  life,  liberty,  and 
property  were  guarded  by  special  provisions  in 
accordance  with  the  spirit  of  the  Ten  Command- 
ments —  that  is,  the  Hebrew  constitution  ;  '^  special 
provisions  were  made  for  the  detection  of  secret 
crime ;  ^  public  instruction  was  provided  for  both 
by  laws  imposing  this  duty  on  the  parents  and  by 
provision  for  instruction  through  itinerant  Levites.^ 
The  only  limitation  on  free  speech  permitted  was  a 
provision  making  the  preaching  of  false  gods  a 
capital  offense ;  and  even  a  false  prophet  could  not 
ordinarily  be  punished  by  the  state  until  the  events 

^  1  Kings  xxi.  1-16. 

^  See  a  list  of  them  in  Smith's  Bible  Dictionary,  article  Laws 
of  Moses. 

^  Deut.  xxiv.  16. 

*  Deut.  xxii.  8 ;  Exod.  xxii.  1-14 ;  Deut.  xxiv.  7. 

5  Deut.  xxi.  1-9. 

6  Deut.  vi.  7 ;  Exod.  xiii.  14,  15 ;  Deut.  xxxi.  9-13  ;  xxxiiL  10 ; 
Neh.  viii.  5-8 ;  2  Chron.  xvii.  8,  9 ;  xxx.  22  ;  xxxv.  2,  3. 


126      LIFE  AND   LITERATURE   OF   THE  HEBREWS 

which  he  had  assumed  to  foretell  belied  his  predic- 
tions, proving  him  to  be  an  impostor.  The  boldness 
of  the  ancient  prophets,  illustrated  alike  by  the 
utterances  which  have  been  preserved  to  us  and  by- 
dramatic  incidents  in  their  careers,  could  have 
been  possible  only  in  a  country  where  freedom  of 
speech  was  a  fact  as  well  as  a  theory.^  With  these 
provisions  of  justice  were  others,  scarcely  less  re- 
markable, of  a  philanthropic  character.  Strangers 
were  protected  from  oppression ;  the  widow  and 
the  fatherless  were  especially  guarded ;  wages  were 
to  be  paid  to  the  hired  servant  from  day  to  day ; 
gleanings  in  the  vineyard  were  to  be  left  for  the 
poor ;  caste  and  class  distinctions  were  prohibited.^ 
This  spirit  of  humanity  is  especially  characteristic 
of  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy.^ 

^  Deut.  xviii.  21,  22 ;  Jer.  xxxviii. ;  2  Sam.  xii.  1-7 ;  1  Kings 
xxi.  17-24. 

2  Exod.  xxii.  21,  22;  Deut.  i.  17;  xvi.  19;  xxiv.  14,  15;  Lev. 
xix.  10,  15  ;  xxiv.  22. 

3  "Humanity  is  the  author's  ruling  motive,  -wherever consider- 
ations of  religion  or  morality  do  not  force  him  to  repress  it. 
Accordingly,  great  emphasis  is  laid  upon  the  exercise  of  pliilan- 
thropy,  promptitude,  and  liberality  towards  those  in  diiliculty  or 
■want,  as  the  indigent  in  need  of  a  loan  (xv.  7-11 ;  xxiii.  19,  20) ; 
a  slave  at  the  time  of  his  manumission  (xv.  13-15),  a  neighbor 
•who  has  lost  any  of  his  property  (xxii.  1-4),  a  poor  man  obliged 
to  borrow  on  pledge  (xxiv.  6,  12  f.),  a  fugitive  slave  (xxiv. 
7),  a  hired  servant  (xxiv.  14  f.) ;  and  in  the  law  for  the  dis- 
position of  the  triennial  tithe  (xiv.  28  f.),  the  landless  Levite  (xii. 
12,  18  f. ;  xiv.  27,  29  ;  xvi.  11, 14 ;  xxvi.  11,  12  f.),  and  the  stranger 
—  i.  e.,  the  unprotected  foreigner  settled  in  Israel.  The  fatherless 
and  the  widow  are  repeatedly  commended  to  the  Israelite's  charity 
or  regard  (xiv.  29;  xvi.  11,  14;  xxiv.  17,  19,  20,  21  ;  xxvi.  12  f . ; 
xxvii.  19;  and  the  stranger,  x.  19;  xxvi.  11),  especially  at  the 


THE  DEUTERONOMIC   CODE  127 

The  laws  of  a  nation  are  partly  a  record  of  its 
life,  partly  an  interpretation  of  its  ideals.  That 
this  is  true  of  the  laws  of  the  Hebraic  common- 
wealth is  made  clear  both  by  their  historical  and 
their  political  books.  The  former  contain  many 
instances  of  violations  of  law  by  kings ;  the  latter 
indict  the  people,  and  especially  the  nobility,  for 
transgressing  its  humane  provisions.  Nevertheless, 
it  would  be  impossible  to  mention  any  people  of 
even  a  much  later  age  than  that  of  the  Book  of 
Deuteronomy,  or  even  that  of  the  restoration  after 
the  exile,  whose  law  and  constitution  embodied  an 
ideal  so  noble  as  that  embodied  in  the  Hebrew  civil 
laws,  or  auy  people  whose  history  shows  the  exist- 
ence of  political  institutions  so  essentially  just, 
free,  and  humane.  Did  this  ideal  exist  only  in 
the  mind  of  Moses  ?  Are  the  laws  and  institutions 
of  the  Hebraic  commonwealth  to  be  compared 
with  the  ideals  of  Plato's  "  Republic  "  or  More's 
"  Utopia "  ?  or  do  those  laws  and  constitutions 
represent  a  real,  vital,  national  growth?  Do  we 
here  see  the  fundamental  principles  of  justice,  lib- 
erty, and  humanity  suggested  by  a  single  prophetic 
genius?  or  do  we  see  them  on  actual  trial  in  a 
unique  nation  ?  Traditionalism  holds  the  first 
opinion,  modern  scholarship  holds  the  second.  The 
second  does  not  detract  from  but  rather  adds  to 

time  of  the  great  annual  pilgrimages  (xii.  12,  18 ;  xiv.  27 ;  xvi. 
11,  14;  xxyi.  11),  when  he  and  his  household  partook  together 
before  God  of  the  bounty  of  the  soil,  and  might  the  more  readily 
respond  to  an  appeal  for  benevolence."  The  International  Critical 
Commentary,  Deuteronomy,  page  xxiv. 


128      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE   OF   TUE  HEBREWS 

the  significance  and  the  value  of  the  revelation 
which  that  political  code  contains.  Kegarded  as 
an  attempt  by  a  long  line  of  prophets  to  embody 
in  the  institutions  of  the  primitive  people  the 
essential  motives  of  justice,  liberty,  and  humanity, 
this  code  is  more  eloquent  than  when  regarded  as 
an  ideal  given  only  by  one  prophet,  comprehended 
only  by  him,  the  serious  execution  of  which  was 
never  really  attempted. 

The  growth  of  the  ecclesiastical  code  or  canon 
law  of  Hebraism  will  be  the  subject  of  considera- 
tion in  the  next  chapter. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE   CANON   LAW 

The  doctrine  that  tlie  Hebrew  code  is  a  produc» 
tion  of  the  gradual  growth  of  the  Hebrew  people 
is  applied  by  the  modern  scholar  to  their  religious 
as  well  as  to  their  civil  codes.  He  does  not  believe 
that  the  Levitical  system  of  worship,  as  it  is  con- 
tained in  the  books  of  Exodus  and  Numbers  and 
especially  that  of  Leviticus,  was  given  by  God  to 
Moses  in  the  form  in  which  it  is  there  found  ;  he 
supposes  that  only  the  germ  of  it  existed  in  the 
time  of  Moses,  and  that  from  that  germ  the  elabo- 
rate system  grew  by  a  gradual  process  reaching  its 
final  form  in  the  time  of  Ezra,  about  the  year  450 
B.  c.^     To  a  certain  school  of  theologians  this  hypo- 

^  All  modern,  that  is,  literary  or  non-traditional,  students  of  the 
Bible  accept  this  general  view  ;  that  is,  they  agree  that  the  germi- 
nant  principles  of  the  Levitical  code  are  Mosaic,  but  its  devel- 
opment was  gradual,  and  its  final  codification,  in  the  form  in 
■which  we  now  possess  it,  was  post-exilic  and  probably  due  to 
Ezra.  Thus  :  "  The  principles  by  which  the  priesthood  was  to  be 
guided  were  laid  down,  it  may  be  supposed,  in  outline  by  Moses. 
In  process  of  time,  however,  as  national  life  grew  more  complex, 
and  fresh  cases  requiring  to  be  dealt  with  arose,  these  principles 
would  be  found  no  longer  to  sufiice,  and  their  extension  would  be- 
come a  necessity.  Especially  in  matters  of  ceremonial  observance, 
■which  would  remain  naturally  within  the  control  of  the  priests, 


130      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

thesis  seems  destructive  not  only  of  certain  forms  of 
worship,  but  of  certain  essential  aspects  of  divine 

regulations  such  as  those  enjoined  in  Exod.  xx.  24—26  ;  xxii.  29, 
30 ;  xxiii.  14—19  would  not  long  continue  in  the  same  rudimen- 
tary state  ;  fresh  definitions  and  distinctions  would  he  introduced, 
more  precise  rules  would  be  prescribed  for  the  method  of  sacrifice, 
the  ritual  to  be  observed  by  the  priests,  the  dues  which  they  were 
authorized  to  receive  from  the  people,  and  other  similar  matters. 
After  the  priesthood  had  acquired,  through  the  foundation  of 
Solomon's  Temple,  a  permanent  centre,  it  is  probable  that  the 
process  of  development  and  systematization  advanced  more  rapidly 
than  before.  .  .  .  Although,  therefore,  there  are  reasons  for  sup- 
posing that  the  Priests'  Code  assumed  finally  the  shape  in  which 
we  have  it  in  the  age  subsequent  to  Ezra  it  rests  ultimately  upon 
an  ancient  traditional  basis ;  and  many  of  the  institutions  pro- 
minent in  it  are  recognized,  in  various  stages  of  their  growth,  by 
the  earlier  pre-exilic  literature,  by  Deuteronomy  and  by  Ezekiel." 
Introduction  to  the  Literature  of  the  Old  Testament,  S.  R.  Driver, 
D.  D.,  pp.  153,  154.  "  The  code  of  Holiness  comes  into  the  his- 
toric field  first  in  connection  with  Ezekiel.  It  is  a  codification  of 
the  immemorial  practice  of  the  priests  of  Jerusalem  going  back  to 
Aaron  and  Moses.  The  priest-code  and  the  document  which  con- 
tains it  cannot  be  proven  till  Ezra's  time.  It  was  a  larger  codifi- 
cation of  the  priestly  ritual  and  customs  coming  down  by  tradition 
from  Moses  and  Aaron  in  the  priestly  circles  of  Jerusalem,  which 
had  been  carefully  conserved  as  holy  relics  in  the  priestly  families 
ainong  the  exiles,  as  bearing  in  them  sacred  memories  and  holy 
promises."  The  Higher  Criticism  of  the  Hexateiich,  by  Charles 
A.  Briggs,  D.  D.,  p.  157.  Professor  Wellhausen  traces  the  de- 
velopment of  the  Jewish  hierarchy  and  thus  states  his  conclusion  : 
"  To  any  one  who  knows  anything  about  history,  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  prove  that  the  so-called  Mosaic  theocracy,  which  nowhere 
suits  the  circumstances  of  the  earlier  periods,  and  of  which  the 
prophets,  even  in  their  most  ideal  delineations  of  the  Israelite 
state  as  it  ought  to  be,  have  not  the  faintest  shadow  of  an  idea,  is, 
so  to  speak,  a  perfect  fit  for  post-exilian  Judaism,  and  had  its  actu- 
ality only  there.  Foreign  rulers  had  then  relieved  the  Jews  of  all 
concern  about  secular  affairs  ;  they  had  it  in  their  power,  and  were 
indeed  compelled  to  give  themselves  wholly  up  to  sacred  things, 


THE    CANON  LAW  131 

truth.  The  churchman,  that  is,  he  who  attaches 
great  value  to  the  institutional  forms  of  thought 

in  which  they  were  left  completely  unhampered.  Thus  the  tem- 
ple became  the  sole  centre  of  life,  and  the  prince  of  the  temple  tlie 
head  of  the  spiritual  commonwealth,  to  which  also  the  control  of 
political  affairs,  so  far  as  these  were  still  left  to  the  nation,  natu- 
rally fell,  there  being"  no  other  head."  History  of  Israel,  Julius 
Wellhausen,  pp.  150,  151.  Dr.  Bruce  sees  in  the  organization  of 
a  hierarchy  and  a  sacrificial  system  the  sign  of  the  degeneracy 
of  the  Jewish  people.  He  says, ' '  Judaism,  apart  altogether  from 
critical  questions,  was  distinct  from  Mosaism.  The  distinguishing 
feature  of  Mosaism,  as  we  have  seen,  was  that  it  asserted  the 
supremacy  of  the  moral  as  compared  with  ritual.  This  funda- 
mental principle  the  prophets  reasserted  with  new  emphasis  and 
widened  range  of  application,  so  showing  themselves  to  be  the  true 
sons  of  Moses.  On  the  other  hand,  the  distinctive  character  of 
Judaism  was  that  it  put  ritual  on  a  level  with  morality,  treated 
Levitieal  rules  as  of  equal  importance  with  the  Decalogue,  mak- 
ing no  distinction  between  one  part  of  the  law  and  another,  but 
demanding  compliance  with  the  prescribed  ceremonial  of  worship 
as  not  less  necessary  to  good  relations  with  God  than  a  righteous 
life.  This  was  a  new  tiling  in  Israel ;  and  it  was  a  great  down- 
come  ;  a  descent  from  liberty  to  bondage,  from  evangelic  to  legal 
relations  with  God,  from  the  spirit  to  the  letter."  He  neverthe- 
less thinks  the  Code  was  a  providential  provision  to  meet  that  de- 
generacy and  keep  alive  the  spirit  of  Mosaism,  and  further  says, 
"  It  needs  but  a  hasty  and  general  survey  of  the  priestly  Code  to 
be  satisfied  that  there  was  much  in  it  that  tended  towards  the 
realization  of  the  Mosaic  ideal  of  a  holy  people  faithful  to  Jeho- 
vah. One  outstanding  feature  in  it  is  the  prominence  given  to  the 
idea  of  sin.  ...  It  was  well,  it  was  a  real  advance  in  moral  cul- 
ture, that  the  religious  system  should  be  so  altered  as  to  develop 
a  deeper  consciousness  of  sin.  It  tended  to  a  more  exalted  view 
of  the  holiness  of  God.  and  to  greater  lieedf  ulness  in  conduct.  .  .  . 
The  centralization  of  worship  in  a  single  sanctuary,  and  the  com- 
mitment of  the  whole  sacrificial  service  into  the  hands  of  a  priestly 
class,  if  an  innovation  as  regards  Mosaism,  had  certainly  a  ten- 
dency to  prepare  men  for  the  religion  of  the  spirit  which  came  in 
with  Jesus.     In  old  times,  it  would  appear,  killing  for  food  and 


132      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

and  worship  as  they  are  found  in  the  church, 
generally  also  attaches  great  value  to  the  sacri- 
ficial system  as  it  is  embodied  in  the  church  creed 
and  expressed  in  the  church  ordinances.  He  re- 
gards the  sacrificial  system  of  the  Old  Testament 
as  divinely  organized  and  ordained ;  he  reveres  it 
as  an  ancient  type  foreshadowing  the  sacrifice  of 
Christ  and  fulfilled  in  the  Gospel ;  he  looks  upon 
it,  therefore,  as  the  most  central  feature  of  the  Old 
Testament  revelation  ;  and  it  is  not  strange  that  he 
resists  with  the  utmost  vigor  any  view  which  treats 
the  Levitical  system  as  a  human  development,  and 
the  sacrificial  system  therein  contained  as  tempo- 
rary in  its  nature  and  now  forever  passed  away, 
because  it  has  fulfilled   its  purpose.^     But  to  this 

sacrifice  were  the  same  thing,  and  every  man  was  his  own  priest. 
Sacrifice  was  a  thing  of  daily  occurrence,  and  an  essential  element 
of  relig'ion.  The  centralization  of  worship  changed  all  that.  Sac- 
rifice became  an  aff^air  of  stated  seasons,  public  sacrifice  for  all 
Israel  threw  into  the  shade  private  sacrifice,  and  the  offering  of 
victims  became  the  business  of  a  professional  class.  But  religion 
is  not  an  affair  for  two  or  three  seasons  in  the  year,  but  for  daily 
life.  Therefore  men  had  to  find  out  for  themselves  means  for  the 
culture  of  piety  independent  of  Levitical  ritual.  .  .  .  The  syna- 
gogue, with  its  prayers  and  its  reading  of  the  scriptures,  met  the 
want,  and  educated  men  for  a  time  when  temple  and  sacrifice 
would  finally  disappear."  Apologetics^  by  Alexander  B.  Bruce, 
D.  D.,  pp.  202,  268,  269,  270. 

^  For  a  good  statement  of  this  view  and  a  good  presentation  of 
the  argument  from  the  traditional  point  of  view  in  favor  of  the 
Mosaic  authorship  of  the  Levitical  Code,  see  The  Booh  of  Leviticus, 
by  S.  H.  Kellogg,  D.  D.,  Expositor's  Bible  Series.  The  following 
paragTaph  (page  25)  illustrates  the  spiritual  interpretation  of  the 
Book  of  Le^aticus  by  this  school.  After  saying  that  one  of  the 
present  uses  of  the  "  book  is  that  it  is  a  revelation  of  the  charac- 


THE    CANON  LAW  133 

view  of  the  Levitical  system  the  modern  literary 
study  of  the  Bible  necessarily  conducts  us,  and  it 
would  be  a  mistake  for  one  who  is  attempting  to 
interpret  the  methods  and  results  of  that  study  to 
conceal  from  himself  or  from  his  readers  the  con- 
clusions to  which  it  will  necessarily  lead.  How  the 
modern  or  literary  or  scientific  student  of  the  Bible 
thinks  the  Levitical  code  was  gradually  formed, 
and  what  providential  purpose  he  thinks  it  was  in- 
tended to  serve  in  the  history  of  the  race,  it  is  the 
object  of  this  article  to  show.  Theology  is  what 
men  think  about  religion ;  ritual  Is  the  way  in 
which  they  express  their  religious  feeling  when 
they  unite  to  give  it  combined  expression.  It  is 
this  ritual,  this  religious  expression  of  the  life  of 
Israel,  we  are  to  consider  in  this  paper. 

In  the  earlier  and  primitive  states  of  society  the 
family  is  the  only  organization.  This  is  what  is 
known  as  the  patriarchal  age.     The  father  is  the 

ter  of  God,"  he  says,  "  More  particularly,  Leviticus  is  of  use  to  us 
now,  as  holding  forth,  in  a  singularly  vivid  manner,  the  funda- 
mental conditions  of  true  religion.  The  Levitical  priesthood  and 
sacrifices  are  no  more,  but  the  spiritual  truth  they  represented 
abides  and  must  abide  forever  ;  namely,  that  there  is  for  sinful 
man  no  citizenship  in  the  kingdom  of  God  apart  from  a  High 
Priest  and  Mediator  with  a  propitiatory  sacrifice  for  sin.  These 
are  days  when  many,  who  would  yet  be  called  Christians,  belittle 
atonement,  and  deny  the  necessity  of  the  shedding  of  substitu- 
tionary blood  for  our  salvation.  Such  would  reduce,  if  it  were 
possible,  the  whole  sacrificial  ritual  of  Leviticus  to  a  symbolic 
se/Z-offering  of  the  worshiper  to  God.  But  against  this  stands 
the  constant  testimony  of  our  Lord  and  His  apostles,  that  it  is 
only  through  the  shedding  of  blood,  not  his  own,  that  man  can 
have  remission  of  sin." 


134      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE   OF   THE   HEBREWS 

king  and  lawgiver ;  he  enacts  the  laws  and  directs 
the  industries  of  the  family.  If  the  family  is  to 
fight  in  defense  of  itself  or  in  attack  on  others  the 
father  is  the  commander-in-chief ;  he  organizes  his 
older  sons  and  his  servants,  arms  them  and  directs 
the  battle.  When  the  battle  is  over  and  thanks- 
giving is  to  be  offered  to  the  gods  for  the  victory, 
the  father  doffs  his  military  garments,  puts  on  the 
garments  of  a  priest,  and  conducts  the  worship. 
He  is  lawgiver,  he  is  soldier,  he  is  priest.  But  as 
society  grows  more  complex  and  families  are  asso- 
ciated together  in  tribes,  and  later  the  tribes  into 
a  nation,  a  differentiation  necessarily  takes  place. 
There  become  different  classes  for  different  voca- 
tions. There  grows  up  an  agricultural  class,  a 
mercantile  class,  a  military  class,  —  one  to  cultivate 
the  soil,  one  to  trade  with  other  nations,  one  to 
fight  the  nation's  battles  ;  and  by  the  same  pro- 
cess of  human  development  there  grows  up  a  wor- 
shij)-leading  class.  It  is  ordinarily  called  a  priestly 
class.  There  is  some  protest  in  the  modern  com- 
mimity  against  a  priestly  class.  But  if  we  are  to 
have  government  we  must  have  men  to  govern ;  if 
industry,  we  must  have  men  to  work ;  if  war,  we 
must  have  men  to  fight ;  and  if  we  are  to  have 
public  worship,  we  must  have  men  to  conduct  such 
worship.  Thus  society  is  developed  out  of  the 
simple  patriarchal  form  into  the  more  complex 
form.  The  priestly  order  arises  in  this  process  as 
naturally  and  as  necessarily  as  the  industrial,  the 
military,  or  the  ruling  order. 


THE    CANON  LAW  135 

But  this  is  not  all.  During  the  patriarchal  age, 
this  family  is  an  itinerant  family.  It  leads  a 
nomadic  life ;  has  no  permanent  dwelling-place ; 
lives  in  tents.  Its  religion  moves  with  it,  and  its 
place  of  worship  is  as  simple  as  its  forms  of  wor- 
ship. Whenever  the  tent  is  raised,  the  altar  is 
put  up  ;  whenever  the  tent  is  taken  down,  the  altar 
is  left  as  a  memorial,  or  is  demolished.  There  are 
no  temples,  as  there  are  no  houses.  But  as  society 
grows  more  complex  and  men  begin  to  live  in 
houses,  and  then  in  towns  and  cities,  out  of  the 
altar  grows  the  temple,  as  out  of  the  father  grew 
the  priesthood  ;  and  there  grow  permanent  places 
for  worship,  as  there  grow  classes  to  lead  the  wor- 
ship. And  as  society  grows  more  wealthy,  the 
place  of  worship  grows  more  ornate  and  more 
elaborate.  And  with  this  growth  of  a  priestly 
class  and  this  accompanying  growth  of  a  temple  or 
a  church  there  grows  a  more  elaborate  ritual.  The 
simple  method  of  the  primitive  age  no  longer  satis- 
fies the  highly  develojied  society ;  worship  grows 
more  complex.  While  men  are  children,  they 
bring  their  gifts  to  God,  in  the  spirit  with  which 
little  children  bring  their  gifts  to  their  parents. 
The  boy  is  thankful  —  he  brings  an  apple  to  his 
father  as  a  token  of  his  love ;  he  has  done  wrong 
and  he  cannot  quite  get  his  stammering  lips  to  say 
"  I  am  sorry,"  so  he  offers  some  unusual  service  to 
his  father  as  a  token  of  his  penitence.  An  offer- 
ing is  the  child's  natural  expression  of  his  childish 
emotion.     So  sacrifices  grew  up  among  men  ;  they 


136      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

offered  their  gifts  to  GocT  as  a  token  of  their  grati- 
tude, or  their  penitence,  or  their  desire  for  God's 
companionship.  In  the  primitive  society  these 
gifts  are  primitive  ;  but  when  the  society  has  groA\Ti 
complex  and  the  temple  has  been  built  and  the 
priestly  class  organized,  the  sacrificial  system  is 
formulated  also,  and  the  sacrifices  which  were  so 
simple  and  childlike  become  elaborate. 

But  the  offering  becomes  deeper  in  its  signifi- 
cance as  well  as  more  complex  in  its  form.  In  the 
story  of  the  Fall  the  fundamental  facts  of  sin  and 
its  consequences  are  pictorially  illustrated  in  a 
childhood  story.  One  of  the  first  effects  of  that 
sin,  as  there  illustrated,  and  as  seen  in  all  human 
history,  is  a  realization  of  the  great  difference 
between  good  and  evil,  and  a  consciousness  of  sin, 
growing  out  of  this  experience ;  a  sense  of  separa- 
tion from  God,  who  is  good,  and  a  fear  of  him  and 
a  desire  to  flee  from  him.  In  the  primitive  state 
of  society,  man  is  comparatively  innocent,  because 
ignorant ;  he  is  not  consciously  guilty,  because  he 
does  not  know  enough  to  discriminate  between  the 
good  and  the  evil.  But  as  society  grows  larger, 
more  complex,  more  ebullient,  man  grows  more 
subject  to  temptation  and  more  liable  to  sin.  And 
with  this  liability  to  sin  there  grows  the  conscious- 
ness of  guilt ;  and  with  this  consciousness  of  guilt, 
a  sense  of  the  separation  from  God  which  it  in- 
volves. For  if  God  is  good  and  man  is  evil  and 
man  becomes  conscious  of  this  and  conscious  also 
of  the  separation  between  good  and  evil,  he  becomes 


THE    CANON  LAW  137 

conscious  of  the  separation  between  God  and  him- 
self. Thus  the  religious  service  is  transformed, 
not  only  by  the  growth  in  complexity  of  society, 
but  by  the  growth  in  moral  consciousness  of  the 
individuals  who  compose  society.  Formerly,  the 
father  was  only  the  leader  of  worship  ;  now  the 
priest  becomes  the  necessary  mediator ;  men  think 
that  they  cannot  go  to  God  direct ;  because  of  the 
separation  which  sin  has  produced,  they  must  have 
some  holy  priest  to  go  to  him  on  their  behalf  and 
in  their  stead.  Once  the  altar  was  simply  the 
place  where  men  had  met  God ;  now  the  temple 
comes  to  be  regarded  as  the  only  place  where  they 
can  meet  God ;  they  think  he  is  nowhere  else  save 
in  this  temple,  under  this  roof,  surrounded  by  this 
incense,  sung  to  by  this  choir.  Once  they  thought 
any  gift  would  serve  that  was  brought  to  God  as 
an  expression  of  their  good  will ;  now  there  is  a 
prescribed  ritual  and  the  belief  that  sinful  man  can 
come  to  God  only  in  the  method  which  has  been 
so  prescribed. 

The  religion  of  the  Book  of  the  Covenant,  the 
oldest  book  in  the  Bible,  embodies  the  primitive  or 
childhood  conception  of  religion ;  the  religion  of 
an  age  when  people  have  not  yet  become  deeply 
conscious  either  of  their  own  sin  or  of  the  holiness 
of  God,  and  therefore  not  deeply  conscious  of  any 
separation  between  themselves  and  God  ;  the  reli- 
gion of  an  age  when  as  yet  the  father  is  the  natural 
priest,  when  any  place  will  serve  as  a  place  of 
worship,  when  any  form  will  serve  as  a  means  of 


138      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

approach  to  the  Father.  Accordingly,  in  this  Book 
of  the  Covenant  there  is  only  one  reference  to 
priests,  and  that  in  the  introduction  to  it,  unless 
the  declaration  that  the  entire  people  shall  be  a 
kingdom  of  priests  belongs  to  the  Book  of  the 
Covenant,  as  probably  it  does  belong  to  the  epoch 
which  that  book  represents ;  there  is  only  one 
reference  to  sacrifices,  and  that  in  connection  with 
the  Passover,  — and  it  is  to  be  remembered  that 
the  Passover  sacrifice  was  offered  by  the  fathers 
for  their  families,  not  by  the  priests ;  and  there  is 
no  reference  to  any  sacred  place  or  temple  where 
worship  is  to  be  conducted,  and  only  one  to  an 
altar  ;  that  reference  is  as  follows  :  — 

"  Gods  of  silver  and  gods  of  gold  ye  shall  not  make 
unto  you.  An  altar  of  earth  thou  shalt  make  unto  me, 
and  shalt  sacrifice  thereon  thy  burnt-offerings,  and  thy 
peace-offerings,  thy  sheep,  and  thine  oxen :  in  every 
place  where  I  record  my  name  I  will  come  unto  thee, 
and  I  will  bless  thee.  And  if  thou  make  me  an  altar  of 
stone,  thou  shalt  not  build  it  of  hewn  stone  :  for  if  thou 
lift  up  thy  tool  upon  it,  thou  hast  polluted  it."  ^ 

The  meaning  is  clear :  Jehovah  desires  no  elab- 
oration of  decoration  :  Let  the  altar  be  of  earth 
such  as  any  man  can  easily  cast  up  with  a  spade ; 
or  if  the  people  are  not  satisfied  with  an  altar  of 
earth,  and  want  to  make  one  of  stone,  it  must  be 
of  the  simplest  kind  ;  it  must  not  be  hewn  stone  ; 
and  they  must  not  imagine  that  there  is  but  one 
1  Exod.  XX.  23-25. 


THE    CANON  LAW  139 

place  where  acceptable  worship  can  be  offered ; 
wherever  they  are,  there  they  may  put  their  altar  ; 
wherever  they  are,  there  Jehovah  will  come  aud 
bless  them.^ 

Such  are  the  liturgical  characteristics  of  this 
Book  of  the  Covenant.  God  is  a  righteous  God, 
who  demands  righteousness  of  his  children,  and 
demands  nothing  else.  There  is  no  one  sacred 
place  —  he  may  be  worshij^ed  anywhere ;  no  great 
temple  —  an  altar  of  earth  will  serve ;  no  priest- 
hood —  the  people  is  a  kingdom  of  priests,  and 
any  man  may  offer  sacrifice. 

But  at  the  time  when  this  simple  religion  was 
set  forth  by  Moses,  the  religions  of  the  surround- 
ing nations  were  complicated  and  elaborate.  In 
Phoenicia,  in  Egypt,  in  Babylon,  there  were  a  sacred 
priesthood,  a  holy  temple,  and  an  elaborate  sacrifi- 
cial system.  In  the  expressive  language  of  Pro- 
fessor Rawlinson,  "  The  Temple  dominated  over  the 
Palace  and  is  itself  dominated  by  the  Tomb,  both 
the  Temple  and  the  Tomb  being  the  expression 
of  religious  ideas."  He  thus  graphically  de- 
scribes the  ecclesiastical  character  of  the  com- 
munity in  which  emancipated  Israel  had  been  sub- 
ject. "  Everywhere  in  Egypt  gigantic  structures 
upreared  themselves  into  the  air,  enriched  with  all 
that  Egyptian  art  could  supply  of  painted  and 
sculptured  decoration,  dedicated  to  the  honor,  and 
bearing  the  sacred  name,  of  some  divinity.  The 
great  temple  of  each  city  was  the  centre  of  its  life. 

1  See  Gen.  xxviii.  16. 


140      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

A  perpetual  ceremonial  of  the  richest  kind  went  on 
within  its  walls,  along  its  shady  corridors,  or 
through  its  sunlit  courts  —  long  processions  made 
their  way  up  or  down  its  avenues  of  sphinxes  — 
incense  floated  in  the  air  —  strains  of  music  re- 
sounded without  pause  —  all  that  was  brightest 
and  most  costly  met  the  eye  on  every  side  —  and 
the  love  of  spectacle,  if  not  deep  religious  feeling, 
naturally  drew  to  the  sanctuary  a  continual  crowd 
of  worshipers  or  spectators,  consisting  partly  of 
strangers,  but  mainly  of  the  native  inhabitants,  to 
whom  the  ceremonies  of  their  own  dear  temple, 
their  pride  and  their  joy,  furnished  a  perpetual 
delightful  entertainment.  At  times  the  temple 
limits  were  overpassed,  and  the  sacred  processions 
were  carried  through  the  streets  of  the  town, 
attracting  the  gaze  of  all ;  or,  embarking  on  the 
waters  of  the  Nile  or  of  some  canal  derived  from 
it,  glided  with  stately  motion  between  the  houses 
on  either  side,  a  fairer  and  brighter  sight  than 
ever.  The  calendar  was  crowded  with  festivals, 
and  a  week  rarely  passed  without  the  performance 
of  some  special  ceremony,  possessing  its  own 
peculiar  attractions.  Foreigners  saw  with  amaze 
the  constant  round  of  religious  or  semi-religious 
ceremonies,  which  seemed  to  know  no  end,  and  to 
occupy  almost  incessantly  the  main  attention  of 
the  people.  Nor  was  the  large  share  which  re- 
ligion had  in  the  outer  life  of  the  nation  the  sole 
or  the  most  important  indication  of  the  place  which 
it  held  in  their  thoughts    and  regards.     Religion 


THE    CANON  LAW  141 

j)ermeatecl  the  whole  being  of  the  people."  ^  The 
Hebrew  slaves  breathed  an  air  of  formalism. 

But  this  religion  was  not  ethical.  It  did  not 
concern  itself  with  the  moral  life  of  the  people. 
It  was  purely  theological  and  ceremonial.  With 
this  elaborate  system  of  religious  ceremonialism 
the  simple  religion  of  Mosaism,  that  God  is  a 
righteous  God  and  demands  righteousness  of  his 
children  and  demands  nothing  else,  came  into 
uncompromising  conflict.  The  Levitical  Code,  as 
the  literary  critic  interprets  the  Old  Testament,  is 
the  product  of  this  conflict  between  the  simple 
principles  of  ]\Iosaism  and  the  elaborate  ritualism 
of  paganism,  much  as  the  mediaeval  religion  was 
the  product  of  the  conflict  between  the  simple 
teachings  of  Jesus  Christ  and  the  elaborate  ritual- 
ism of  pagan  Rome  which  those  teachings  were 
destined  to  supplant.  If  a  stream  of  pure  water  is 
to  wash  out  a  sewer,  it  can  do  so  only  by  entering 
the  sewer.  If  a  new  life  is  to  purify  a  community, 
it  can  do  so  only  by  entering  into  that  community, 
and  it  must,  in  the  very  process  of  purifying,  take 
on  to  some  extent  the  impurities  from  which  it  is 
to  cleanse  the  community. 

In  the  Old  Testament  we  can  trace  this  process. 
AVe  see  this  simple  religion  of  ISIosaism  —  God  is  a 
righteous  God,  who  demands  righteousness  of  his 
children  and  who  demands  nothing  else ;  they  may 
bring  their  offerings  where  they  will,  as  thej^  will, 

1  History  of  Ancient  Egypt,  George  Bawlinson,  M.  A.,  vol.  i. 
pp.  321,  322. 


142      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

through  whose  hands  they  will  —  we  find  this 
religion  entering  into  the  life  of  the  nation.  At 
first  there  is  no  temple,  no  one  place  of  religious 
service  where  alone  sacrifice  may  be  offered,  no 
priestly  order  which  alone  may  offer  sacrifice. 
Gideon  offers  sacrifice  at  Ophrah ;  Saul  at  Gilgal ; 
Samuel  and  David  at  Bethlehem  ;  Elijah  at  Car- 
mel.-^  Nor  are  these  violations  of  the  divine  law  ; 
they  are  clearly  approved  —  sometimes  approved 
by  a  signal  revelation  of  the  divine  favor.  When 
Elijah,  who  is  no  priest,  offers  the  sacrifice  on 
Mount  Carmel,  the  fire  falls  from  heaven  in  wit- 
ness that  God  has  approved  his  offering.  It  is 
clear  that  during  all  this  period  of  their  history 
the  children  of  Israel  knew  no  law  requiring  all 
men  to  go  up  to  Jerusalem  and  offer  their  sacri- 
fices at  the  temple  there,  or  requiring  all  sacrifices 
to  be  offered  by  priests.  As  during  this  early 
history  of  Israel  there  is  no  exclusive  priesthood, 
no  temple,  no  definite  place  of  w^orship,  so  there  is 
no  elaborate  ritual.  The  sacrifices  during  that 
early  history  are,  for  the  most  part,  simple  thank- 
offerings.  Outside  the  Levitical  code  there  are  no 
indications  of  offerings  to  atone  for  sin. 

But  the  nation  is  growing,  not  only  in  complex- 
ity of  life,  but  also  in  moral  consciousness.  Its 
prophetic  teachers,  its  providential  schooling,  are 
not  in  vain.  The  people  grow  in  the  knowledge  of 
good  and  evil.     Their  appreciation  of  the  holiness 

^  Judges  vi.  24;  1  Sam.  xv.  21 ;  xvi.  5;  xx.  6;  1  Kiugs  xriii. 
29-38. 


THE   CANON  LAW  143 

of  God  is  developed ;  their  consciousness  of  their 
sins  against  liira  is  deepened.  They  feel  increas- 
ingly the  moral  separation  between  good  and  evil, 
and  therefore  between  a  good  God  and  an  evil  na- 
tion. At  the  same  time  they  are  growing,  in  some 
other  directions,  not  so  wisely  nor  so  well.  They 
mingle  with  other  peoples  and  borrow  from  them. 
They  abandon  the  simplicity  of  their  primitive 
republicanism  and  adopt  the  monarchical  system. 
The  nation  becomes  a  highly  organized  nation, 
with  a  standing  army  and  a  permanent  civil  ad- 
ministration. It  is  not  strange  that  it  borrows 
from  other  nations  religious  as  well  as  political 
ideas  and  methods.  Sometimes  the  people  wor- 
ship Jehovah,  but  betrayed  in  images  borrowed 
from  Egypt ;  sometimes  they  substitute  the  wor- 
ship of  Baal  and  Astarte  for  that  of  Jehovah  ; 
sometimes  they  suffer  the  double  worship  to  be 
carried  on  contemporaneously  and  even  in  the 
same  sacred  edifice.^  Imitating  their  neighbors  in 
ecclesiastical  as  in  civil  matters,  the  people  build  a 
temple,  ordain  a  priesthood,  organize  a  sacrificial 
system,  and  unconsciously  tend  to  centralize  all 
worship  in  the  temple,  to  confine  all  religious  func- 
tions to  the  priesthood,  to  eschew  all  forms  of  wor- 
ship not  conducted  according  to  the  ritual.  At 
length  they  are  carried  into  captivity.  For  seventy 
years  they  live  exiles  in  Babylon,  separated  from 
their  holy  city,  their  temple,  their  priesthood,  their 

^  1  Kings  xii.  2S,  29 ;  Judges  ii.  11 ;  vi.  25;  1  Kings  xvi.  31, 
32  ;  xi.  5  ;  2  Kings  xxiii.  13. 


144      LIFE   AND    LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

sacrificial  system.  Their  religious  life  begins  to 
take  on  new  forms.  They  gather  together  their 
sacred  books  :  the  Bible  grows  into  a  recognized 
collection  of  sacred  literature.  They  organize 
places  for  religious  instruction  and  religious  wor- 
ship without  sacrifice  :  the  synagogue  is  born,  and 
public  and  family  prayer  appear.  They  learn  that 
God  is  not  a  Palestinian  God,  that  he  is  to  be  met 
with  elsewhere  than  in  the  temple  of  Solomon  or 
the  city  of  David.  Ezekiel  sees  a  vision  of  Jeho- 
vah in  the  desert ;  the  Great  Unknown  beholds  the 
manifestation  of  him  in  the  starry  firmament.^ 
Because  the  people  scorn  their  captives  they  scorn 
their  captives'  gods.  Jehovah  is  no  longer  merely 
a  God  above  all  other  gods,  he  is  the  only  God  ; 
the  gods  of  the  pagans  are  for  the  first  time  called 
not-gods.^  The  people  are  learning  that  their  God 
is  the  God  of  all  nations  ;  that  all  places  are  sacred 
places  ;  that  he  may  be  approached  by  prayer  with- 
out a  sacrifice  and  by  the  layman  without  a  priest. 
The  New  Judaism  is  born,  and  it  is,  as  so  many 
new  births  are,  a  restoration  of  the  oldest  Judaism, 
a  return  to  the  truths  of  the  Book  of  the  Covenant, 
never  really  accepted  by  the  people,  yet  never 
wholly  forgotten  by  their  greatest  spiritual  leaders. 

At  the  same  time,  because  the  people  are  shut 
off  from  those  methods  of  worship  to  which  they 
have  been  accustomed,  they  long  to  reestablish 
them.  Their  patriotism  and  their  religious  insti- 
tutions become  inseparably  connected.      Judaism 

1  Ezek.  i.  ;  Isaiah  xl.  25,  26.  2  jgr.  ii.  11 ;  xvi.  20. 


THE    CANON  LAW  145 

means  to  them  a  return  to  the  Holy  City,  and  that 
means  also  a  return  to  all  that  the  Holy  City  con- 
notes —  their  own  temple,  their  own  priesthood, 
their  own  liturgical  system.  And  when  the  time 
of  the  restoration  comes,  and  they  return  to  their 
native  land,  many  of  the  most  deeply  religious 
among  them  are  eager  to  rebuild  the  temple,  re- 
establish the  priesthood,  reorganize  the  ancient 
service.  But  all  this  tends  to  an  excessive  sacer- 
dotalism, and  that  in  turn,  by  a  natural  reaction, 
to  vigorous  protests  against  sacerdotalism.  An 
ecclesiasticism  and  a  Puritanism  grow  up  together. 
The  representatives  of  the  ecclesiastical  party  urge 
the  rebuilding  of  the  temple,  the  reconstruction  of 
the  priesthood,  and  the  rehabilitation  of  the  liturgy.^ 
Now  for  the  first  time  appears  the  doctrine  that 
sacrifice  can  be  acceptably  offered  only  in  Jerusa- 
lem ;  that  it  is  profanation  for  any  other  than  a 
priest  to  offer  it ;  that  only  by  sacred  sacrifice  so 
offered  in  that  temple  can  sin  be  atoned  and  the 
sinful  soul  purified.^  But  the  representatives  of 
the  Puritan  party  will  hear  nothing  of  all  this. 
They  protest  against  it  in  utterances  quite  as  vigor- 
ous as  any  of  Luther's  against  Romanism,  or  any 
of  the  Puritans  of  the  seventeenth  century  against 
sacerdotalism.    Even  before  the  restoration,  Isaiah, 

^  Hag',  chap.  i.     See  ^zra,  passim. 

2  Dent.  xii.  (5,  11,  14,  26  ;  2  Chron.  vii.  12  ;  Lev.  xvii.  4,  8,  9  ; 
xvii.  11,  with  Heb.  ix.  22;  2  Chron.  xxvi.  18-21.  Uzziah's  (or  Aza- 
riah's)  punishment  for  offering  sacrifice  is  not  mentioned  in  Kings : 
2  Kinsfs  xiv.  21,  22. 


146      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

one  of  the  greatest  of  the  prophets,  sees  the  growth 
of  this  ecclesiasticism  contemporaneously  with  the 
moral  deterioration  of  the  nation,  and  protests 
against  it.     He  says  :  — 

"  Hear  the  word  of  the  Lord,  ye  rulers  of  Sodom  ;  give 
ear  mito  the  law  of  our  God,  ye  people  of  Gomorrah. 
To  what  purpose  is  the  multitude  of  your  sacrifices  unto 
me  ?  saith  the  Lord  :  I  am  full  of  the  burnt  offerings  of 
rams,  and  the  fat  of  fed  beasts  ;  and  I  dehght  not  in 
the  blood  of  bullocks,  or  of  lambs,  or  of  he-goats.  When 
ye  come  to  appear  before  me,  who  hath  required  this  at 
your  hand,  to  trample  my  courts  ?  Bring  no  more  vain 
oblations ;  incense  is  an  abomination  unto  me  ;  new 
moon  and  sabbath,  the  caUing  of  assemblies,  —  I  cannot 
away  with  iniquity  and  the  solemn  meeting.  Your  new 
moons  and  your  appointed  feasts  my  soul  hateth :  they 
are  a  trouble  unto  me  ;  I  am  weary  to  bear  them.  And 
when  ye  spread  forth  your  hands,  I  will  hide  mine  eyes 
from  you  :  yea,  when  ye  make  many  prayers,  I  wiU  not 
hear :  your  hands  are  fuU  of  blood.  Wash  you,  make 
you  clean ;  put  away  the  evil  of  your  doings  from  be- 
fore mine  eyes ;  cease  to  do  evil :  learn  to  do  well ;  seek 
judgment,  relieve  the  oppressed,  judge  the  fatherless, 
plead  for  the  widow."  ^ 

Amos,  the  first  of  the  great  prophets  whose  writ- 
ten utterances  have  been  preserved  to  us,  is  equally 
explicit,  and  in  one  respect  even  more  so,  as  in  the 
following  passage :  — 

"  I  hate,  I  despise  your  feasts,  and  I  will  take  no  de- 
light in  your  solemn  assemblies.     Yea,  though  ye  offer 
1  Isa.  i.  10-17. 


THE    CANON  LAW  147 

me  your  burnt  offerings  and  meal  offerings,  I  will  not 
accept  them :  neither  wiU  I  regard  the  peace  offerings 
of  your  fat  beasts.  Take  thou  away  from  me  the  noise 
of  thy  songs  ;  for  I  will  not  hear  the  melody  of  thy 
viols.  But  let  judgment  roll  down  as  waters,  and 
righteousness  as  a  mighty  stream."  ^ 

He  does  not  believe  that  this  liturgical  system 
dates  from  the  days  of  Moses.     He  says  :  — 

"  Did  ye  bring  unto  me  sacrifices  and  offerings  in  the 
wilderness  forty  years,  O  house  of  Israel  ?  "  '^ 

Jeremiah  is  still  more  explicit  in  his  affirmation 
that  this  sacrificial  system  is  not  a  revival  of  Mosa- 
ism  but  a  corruption  of  it :  — 

"  Thus  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts,  the  God  of  Israel :  Add 
your  burnt  offerings  unto  your  sacrifices,  and  eat  ye 
flesh.  For  I  spake  not  unto  yotu"  fathers,  nor  com- 
manded them  in  the  day  that  I  brought  them  out  of  the 
land  of  Egypt,  concerning  burnt  offerings  or  sacrifices : 
but  this  thing  I  commanded  them,  saying.  Hearken 
unto  my  voice,  and  I  will  be  your  God,  and  ye  shall  be 
my  people  :  and  walk  ye  in  aU  the  way  that  I  command 
you,  that  it  may  be  well  with  you."  ® 

1  Amos  V.  21-24.  2  jj;^.  ^_  25. 

"  Jer.  vii.  21-23.  The  conservative  or  traditional  critics  quote 
Jer.  xxxiii.  18  as  evidence  that  Jeremiah  means  by  his  lang-uage 
here,  not  to  deny  that  God  commanded  sacrifices  through  Moses, 
but  only,  as  Dr.  C.  von  Orelli  puts  it,  to  deny  "  that  sacrifice  was 
the  motive  or  occasion,  and  so  the  substantive  content  of  God's 
legislation."  The  Prophecies  of  Jeremiah,  by  Dr.  C.  von  Orelli, 
p.  78.  The  same  interpretation  is  more  fully  given  in  the  Bible 
Commentary  on  Jer.  vii.  21-23.  The  interpretation  which  I  ac- 
cept is  the  one  adopted  by  the  modern  school,  as  by  George  Adam 
Smith,  for  example,  who  says  that  Jeremiah  "  distinctly  declares 
that  in  the  wilderness  God  prescribed  no  ritual  to  Israel."  The 
Book  of  the  Twelve  Prophets,  vol.  i.  p.  171,  note.    See  also  p.  104. 


148      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

That  Amos  and  Jeremiah  were  correct,  that  the 
Levitical  system  does  not  date  from  the  days  of 
Moses,  that  it  is  no  part  of  that  simple,  jorimitive 
religion  which  finds  its  exposition  in  the  Book  of 
the  Covenant,  appears  absolutely  certain  to  the 
literary  or  scientific  student  of  the  Bible.  This 
appears  to  him  clear  from  the  inconsistency  of  the 
Levitical  code  in  its  form  and  to  some  extent  in  its 
spirit  with  the  Book  of  the  Covenant,  admittedly 
the  oldest  and  most  authentic  interpretation  of  the 
spirit  of  Moses  and  his  teaching  ;  from  its  palpable 
ill-adaptedness  to  the  nomadic  life  in  the  wilder- 
ness ;  from  the  fact  that  it  was  not  only  disre- 
garded during  all  the  earlier  history  of  Israel,  but 
disregarded  with  never  a  sign  of  divine  disapproval, 
and  sometimes  with  explicit  signs  of  divine  ap- 
proval ;  from  the  nature  of  the  ritual  itself,  and 
its  kinship  in  form  with  that  of  pagan  peoples  ; 
from  the  testimony  of  the  great  prophets  already 
cited  ;  and  from  the  further  consideration  to  be 
pointed  out  that  it  has  unmistakably  served  its  pur- 
pose, and  is  now  no  longer  recognized  as  an  integral 
part  of  Judaism  by  any  considerable  number  of 
Jewish  teachers. 

The  literary  or  scientific  student  does  not,  then, 
believe  that  the  Levitical  code  embodies  a  divinely 
ordained  system  revealed  to  Moses,  supernaturally 
preserved,  and  intended,  either  in  itself  or  as  a  fore- 
shadowing of  the  divine  sacrifice,  to  be  of  eternal 
value  to  the  human  race.  But  neither  does  he 
believe  it  to  be  of  pagan  origin,  an  impediment  to 


THE    CANON  LAW  149 

the  growth  of  the  human  race,  because  a  mere  cor- 
ruption of  spiritual  religion.  We  are  not  left  to 
reject  as  wholly  false  every  religious  movement 
which  is  not  wholly  true.  The  Puritans  were  mis- 
taken in  thinking  that  there  is  no  place  in  God's 
kingdom  for  a  Quaker  no-ritual ;  the  Cavaliers 
were  mistaken  in  thinking  that  there  is  no  place 
for  a  Puritan  no-ritual ;  the  Roman  Catholics  were 
mistaken  in  the  Middle  Ages  in  thinking  that  there 
is  no  place  for  a  Protestant  no-ritual.  And  the 
Quakers,  the  Puritans,  and  the  Protestants  were 
equally  mistaken  in  thinking  that  there  is  no  place 
in  God's  world  for  the  ritual  which  they  sometimes 
hated  and  sometimes  scorned.  For  God  opens 
more  doors  to  himself  than  we  imagine,  and  lets  us 
come  to  him  by  what  pathway  we  will :  with  in- 
cense or  without  incense  ;  with  candles  and  an  altar 
or  with  communion-table  and  no  altar  ;  through  the 
expression  of  the  silent  prayer,  or  through  the  ex- 
pression of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  or  through 
the  expression  of  the  Roman  ritual  in  the  eleva- 
tion of  the  host. 

The  Levitical  code,  then,  in  the  form  in  which 
we  now  find  it  in  the  Bible  is  not,  — to  this  conclu- 
sion I  have  been  endeavoring  to  conduct  the  reader, 
—  a  divine  and  eternal  order  of  worship,  nor  yet 
the  revelation  of  a  divine  and  eternal  principle  of 
worship  ;  it  is  the  codification  of  ecclesiastical  cus- 
toms which  had  grown  up  through  eight  or  nine 
centuries  of  Jewish  life ;  it  borrowed  most  of  its 
form  and  some  portion  of  its  underlying  theological 


150      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

conception  from  pagan  religions.  Yet  it  was  not 
wholly  Jewish,  neither  was  it  wholly  pagan  ;  it  was 
a  combination  of  paganism  and  Mosaism,  a  graft 
of  the  former  ujjon  the  latter,  or  the  transformation 
of  the  former  by  the  spirit  of  the  latter.  But  the 
customs  embodied  in  this  code  furnished  a  protec- 
tion to  the  religion  of  Israel  at  a  time  when  a  more 
purely  spiritual  and  less  formal  religion  would  not 
have  sufficed  for  that  purpose.  It  had  within  it- 
self, as  we  shall  see,  elements  which  insured  its 
destruction  when  it  had  served  its  purpose ;  that 
purpose  was  to  furnish  a  bridge  across  which  a 
people  not  fully  emancipated  might  pass  from  pa- 
ganism, which  is  founded  on  the  fear  of  the  gods, 
to  Mosaism,  which  is  founded  on  reverence  for  the 
one  and  only  God,  and  so  to  Christianity,  which  is 
founded  on  God's  love  for  man  and  the  possibility 
of  man's  spiritual  union  with  him. 

There  are  two  methods  by  which  a  great  reform 
may  be  accomplished, —  the  iconoclastic  and  the 
constructive.  Politically  France  illustrates  the  one 
method,  England  the  other.  In  both  countries  had 
grown  up  a  feudal  system ;  France  destroyed  it  in 
a  single  revolution,  gathered  the  people  in  a  general 
assembly,  and  undertook  to  build  from  the  founda- 
tion a  republic  consecrated  to  liberty,  equality,  and 
fraternity.  England  in  successive  epochs  poured 
a  new  and  popular  spirit  into  her  old  forms :  she 
retained  the  crown  as  a  sj-mbol  of  the  nation,  but 
without  political  power ;  the  prime  minister,  but 
made  him  the  people's  servant;   the  Parliament, 


THE    CANON  LAW  lol 

but  centralized  its  authority  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, that  is,  of  the  common  people.  The  French 
seemed  at  the  time  the  more  expeditious ;  the 
English  has  proved  the  more  efficacious.  The  con- 
trast between  Puritanism  and  Episcopacy  illustrates 
the  same  principle  in  the  religious  realm.  Puri- 
tanism repudiated  the  bishops,  dissolved  the  old 
ecclesiastical  organization,  set  aside  the  altar,  the 
liturgy,  and  the  priesthood,  made  of  the  temple  a 
meeting-house,  treated  the  minister  as  only  a  lay- 
man intrusted  with  a  temporary  function,  resolved, 
in  a  word,  to  dispense  with  everything  which 
the  mediaeval  church  held  dear,  because  every- 
thing which  it  held  dear  had  been  corrupted  to 
base  uses.  Episcopalianism  retained  the  bishop, 
but  bereft  him  of  his  autocratic  powers;  called 
her  clergy  priests,  but  refused  to  regard  them  as 
necessary  mediators  between  the  laity  and  God ; 
retained  the  altar,  but  not  the  sacrifice  of  the  mass ; 
preserved  the  ritual,  but  set  it  to  new  uses.  The 
Reformation  was  not  less  in  the  Episcopal  than  in 
the  Puritan  churches ;  the  one  was  not  less  than 
the  other  the  vehicle  of  a  new  spirit.  Both  methods 
of  reform  are  legitimate  ;  each  has  its  perils.  The 
dangers  of  the  radical  method  are  those  of  revolu- 
tion and  reaction ;  the  dangers  of  the  conservative 
method  are  those  of  unconscious  return  through 
the  old  forms  to  the  old  evils  which  they  embodied. 
The  history  of  Israel  illustrates  both  of  these 
methods.  The  paganism  which  surrounded  Israel 
was  thoroughly  false :    false  in  its  conception  of 


152      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF    THE   HEBREWS 

God  as  an  unmoral  force ;  false  in  its  notion 
that  he  is  a  God  of  wrath  and  must  be  appeased 
by  blood ;  false  in  its  notion  that  his  favor  can 
be  secured  by  sacrifice ;  false  in  its  notion  that  he 
calls  on  his  children  for  any  other  offering  than  to 
do  justly,  to  love  mercy,  and  to  walk  humbly  with 
him.  There  were  two  ways  in  which  this  falsity 
might  be  overthrown.  One  was  the  way  of  the 
prophets,  the  Hebrew  Puritans,  the  radicals  of 
that  age.  It  was  directly  to  attack  the  ceremonial 
system ;  to  affirm,  as  one  Hebrew  Psalmist  did,  that 
God  desires  not  sacrifices  ;  as  Isaiah  did,  that  he  did 
not  require  them ;  as  Amos  did,  that  he  despised 
feast  days  and  incense  and  would  not  accept  their 
offerings ;  as  Micah  did,  that  he  required  nothing 
but  justice,  mercy,  and  humility.^  The  other  way 
was  that  of  the  priests,  the  ecclesiastics,  the  church- 
men of  that  age.  It  was  to  accept  the  spiritual 
truth  of  Mosaism  and  pour  it  into  the  formal- 
ism which  had  been  borrowed,  but  modified,  from 
the  pagan  nations,  and  make  paganism  itself  the 
vehicle  of  divine  truth.  This  method  gave  birth  to 
the  Levitical  code ;  which  was  like  the  pagan  cere- 
monialism in  that  it  prescribed  a  temple,  an  altar, 
a  priesthood,  a  sacrificial  system,  but  which  was 
unlike  the  pagan  code  in  five  very  important 
particulars. 

I.  In  pagan  countries  the  ecclesiastical  system, 
with  its  priests,  its  temple,  and  its  worship,  was 
independent  of  the  people.     The  Church  was  a 

1  Psalm  U.  16 ;  Isa  i.  11-15 ;  Amos  v.  21,  22 ;  Micah  vi.  6-8. 


THE   CANON  LAW  153 

department  of  the  State  and  supported  out  of  the 
revenues  of  the  State.  The  priests  were  State 
officials  ranking  next  to  the  king  himself,  if  not 
outranking  him.  In  Eg3rpt  a  considerable  portion 
of  the  land,  perhaps  as  much  as  one  third,  was 
made  over  to  the  priestly  class ;  sacred  slaves  be- 
longing to  the  priests  cultivated  the  lands  for 
them ;  their  estates  were  exempt  from  taxation ; 
their  wealth  was  continually  augmented  by  the 
voluntary  gifts  of  the  devout  or  the  more  reluctant 
contributions  of  the  superstitious  ;  they  were,  in 
short,  the  wealthiest,  as  they  were  the  most  privi- 
leged, class  in  the  country.^  A  similar  independ- 
ence of  the  church  was  manifested  far  down  into 
European  history.  In  mediaeval  Europe  the  church 
was  supported  by  payments  for  ecclesiastical  ser- 
vices, which,  at  first  voluntary,  became  compulsory ; 
by  tithes  collected  by  force  of  law  like  other  taxes ; 
and  by  rentals  of  land,  from  one  tenth  to  one  fifth 
of  which,  in  the  time  of  Henry  VIII.,  even  in 
England,  had  passed  into  the  possession  of  the 
ecclesiastics.''^  In  the  Levitical  church  the  priests 
could  own  no  land  ;  the  church  was  not  supported 
by  the  State  ;  the  offerings  which  sustained  it  were 
voluntary.  It  is  true  that  the  Levitical  code  fixed 
on  one  tenth  of  the  agricultural  produce  as  a  proper 
proportion  to  be  given  to  the  support  of  the  church,'^ 
but  there  was  no  means   of  collecting  this  tenth 

1  Rawlinson's  History  of  Ancient  Egypt,  i.  449,  450. 

2  Hallam's  Constitutional  History  of  England,  chap.  ii. 

3  Lev.  xxvii.  30-32 ;  Deut.  xiv.  22-28. 


154      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

from  those  who  did  not  choose  to  give  it.  The 
Levitical  church  was  dependent  on  the  free-will 
offerings  of  the  people,  enforced  only  by  public 
sentiment. 

II.  As  the  support  of  the  church  was  not  com- 
pulsory, so  neither  were  its  services.  The  pagan 
code  made  sacrifice  obligatory.  To  refuse  to  sacri- 
fice to  the  gods  was  to  hazard  one's  fortime,  one's 
family,  one's  life.  But  the  Levitical  code  declares 
that  all  offerings  must  be  the  free-will  gift  of  the 
"worshiper.  "  He  shall  offer  it  of  his  own  voluntary 
will  at  the  door  of  the  tabernacle,"  is  the  provision 
of  the  code  in  its  introductory  paragraph.^  It  is 
true  that  our  revised  version  gives  a  radically 
different  translation :  "  He  shall  offer  it  at  the 
door  of  the  tent  of  meeting  that  he  may  be  accepted 
before  the  Lord."  It  is  doubtfid  which  of  these 
translations  is  correct :  whether  the  meaning  is 
that  the  worshiper  shall  offer  a  sacrifice  which  is 
acceptable  to  the  Lord,  —  that  is,  in  accordance  with 
God's  will ;  or  whether  he  shall  offer  one  that  is 
acceptable  to  himself,  —  that  is,  of  his  own  free 
will.  But  whichever  of  these  translations  we  accept 
as  correct,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  former  epi- 
tomizes the  spirit  of  the  Levitical  code.  Its 
provisions,  as  my  brother,  the  late  Dean  of  the 
New  York  University  Law  School,  once  said  to 
me,  are  regulative,  not  mandatory,  and  no  lawjer 
would  think  of  interpreting  them  otherwise.  They 
regulate  customs  already  existing ;  they  do  not 
^  Lev.  i.  3. 


THE    CANON  LAW  155 

require  a  service  now  first  prescribed.  "  If,"  says 
the  code,  "  his  offering  be  a  burnt  sacrifice  of  the 
herd,  let  him  offer  a  male  without  blemish.  ...  If 
his  offering  be  of  the  flocks,  o  .  .  he  shall  bring  it 
a  male  without  blemish.  ...  If  the  burnt  sacrifice 
for  his  offering  to  the  Lord  be  of  fowls,  then  he 
shall  bring  his  offering  of  turtle-doves,  or  of  young 
pigeons.  ...  If  thou  bring  an  oblation  of  a  meat 
offering  baken  in  the  oven,  it  shall  be  unleavened 
cakes  mingled  with  oil,  or  unleavened  wafers 
anointed  with  oil."  All  is  voluntary ;  all  is  con- 
ditioned on  the  free  will  of  the  worshiper.  The 
offerer  may  bring  or  not ;  though,  if  he  brings,  the 
code  defines  certain  qualities  of  the  gift  and  what 
shall  be  done  with  it.  The  reader  will  search  in 
vain  in  the  Levitical  code  for  any  penalty  pro- 
nounced against  the  non-worshiper,  and  the  history 
of  Israel  in  vain  for  any  penalty  inflicted  on  one 
for  refusing  to  worship. 

III.  This  voluntary  character  of  the  sacrificial 
system  of  the  Levitical  code  is  emphasized  and  the 
principle  involved  in  it  is  carried  out  in  another 
principle  of  that  code  which  is  even  more  important, 
and  is  in  quite  as  striking  a  contrast  with  the  sacri- 
ficial systems  of  the  pagan  religions  :  the  offerings 
were  inexpensive.  In  paganism  the  value  of  the 
sacrifice  was  estimated  by  its  cost.  Thousands  of 
cattle,  costly  incense,  prisoners  taken  captive  in 
war,  sometimes  the  child  of  the  worshiper,  were 
offei'ed  as  sacrifices.  The  aim  was  to  appease  the 
wrath  of   the  gods,  or   to   satisfy  their   supposed 


156      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   UE BREWS 

insatiable  desire,  and  nothing  was  esteemed  too 
precious  for  tliis  ])urpose.  The  prevented  sacrifice 
of  Isaac  by  Abraham,  the  accomplislied  sacrifice  of 
his  daughter  by  Jephtha,  the  legendary  self-sacri- 
fice of  Curtius  to  save  Rome  from  the  widening 
chasm  which  threatened  to  engulf  it,  are  illustra- 
tions familiar  to  every  reader  of  this  character 
of  sacrifice  prior  to  or  outside  the  influence  of 
Mosaism.  The  oft-quoted  text  of  Micah,  "Will 
Jehovah  be  pleased  with  thousands  of  rams,  or 
with  ten  thousands  of  rivers  of  oil  ?  Shall  I  give 
my  firstborn  for  my  transgression,  the  fruit  of  my 
body  for  the  sin  of  my  soul?"  refers  doubtless  to 
this  pagan  conception  of  sacrifice,  with  which  his 
hearers  were  only  too  familiar. 

The  spirit  of  the  Levitical  code  was  wholly 
opposed  to  this  conception.  Human  sacrifice  was 
unknown  ;  hecatombs  were  unknown ;  the  value 
of  sacrifice  was  never  measured  by  its  costliness. 
It  was  true  that  the  worshiper  must  not  bring  to 
God  the  lame,  the  halt,  the  blind ;  that  is,  he  must 
not  offer  to  God  what  he  would  offer  to  no  one 
else,  because  that  would  be  no  true  offering,  but 
mere  false  pretense.  But  so  that  it  was  without 
blemish  he  might  bring  what  offering  he  would,  — 
a  bullock,  a  lamb,  a  goat,  a  pair  of  doves,  a  sheaf 
of  wheat.  The  value  of  the  offering  depended,  not 
on  its  cost,  but  on  the  experience  which  it  rej^re- 
sented.  The  three  divine  experiences  of  a  soul 
toward  its  God  were  all  recognized  in  the  Levitical 
code,  and  each  was  represented  by  its  appointed 


THE    CANON  LAW  157 

expression.  The  worshiper  might  come  to  the 
temple  conscious  of  sin  and  desiring  to  express  his 
penitence  ;  then  he  brought  a  sin-offering  or  a 
trespass-offering.  He  might  come  with  a  desire 
to  renew  his  consecration  to  God  and  reaffirm  his 
purpose  to  devote  his  life  to  God's  service ;  then 
he  brought  a  burnt  offering,  the  consumption  of 
which  by  fire  represented  his  purpose  to  offer  to 
Jehovah  all  that  he  had.  He  might  come  with  a 
heart  full  of  gladness  and  a  desire  to  express  his 
gratitude  to  and  his  joy  in  the  Lord  ;  then  he 
brought  a  peace-offering  or  a  thank-offering.  The 
offerings  were  classified,  not  according  to  their 
costliness,  but  according  to  the  expression  which 
they  represented  ;  and  if  they  did  not  represent 
the  real  and  vital  experience,  no  cost  in  the  offering 
could  make  it  acceptable  to  Jehovah.  A  single 
quotation  from  this  code  will  serve  to  illustrate  this 
general  principle :  — 

"  If  a  soul  sin,  and  commit  a  trespass  against  the  Lord, 
and  lie  unto  his  neighbor  in  that  which  was  delivered 
him  to  keep,  or  in  fellowship,  or  in  a  thing  taken  away 
by  violence,  or  hath  deceived  his  neighbor  ;  or  have 
found  that  which  was  lost,  and  lieth  concerning  it,  and 
sweareth  falsely  ;  in  any  of  all  these  that  a  man  doeth, 
sinning  therein  :  then  it  shall  be,  because  he  hath  sinned 
and  is  guilty,  that  he  shall  restore  that  which  he  took 
violently  away,  or  the  thing  which  he  hath  deceitfully 
gotten,  or  that  which  was  delivered  him  to  keep,  or  the 
lost  thing  which  he  found,  or  all  that  about  which  he 
hath  sworn  falsely  ;  he  shall  even  restore  it  in  the  prin- 


158      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE   OF   THE   HEBREWS 

cipal,  and  shall  add  the  fifth  part  more  thereto,  and 
give  it  unto  him  to  whom  it  appertaineth,  in  the  day  of 
his  trespass  offering.  And  he  shall  bring  his  trespass 
offering  unto  the  Lord,  a  ram  without  blemish  out  of  the 
flock,  with  thy  estimation,  for  a  trespass  offering,  unto 
the  priest :  and  the  priest  shaU  make  an  atonement  for 
him  before  the  Lord  :  and  it  shall  he  forgiven  him  for 
anytliing  of  all  that  he  hath  done  in  trespassing  there- 


Sacrifice  did  not  take  the  place  of  righteousness. 
Before  the  sin-offering  could  be  given  to  the  Lord, 
reparation  must  be  made  to  the  one  who  had  been 
wronged.  Two  centuries  after  this  code  had  been 
formulated,  Christ  said  to  his  disciples,  "  If  thou 
bring  thy  gift  to  the  altar,  and  there  rememberest 
that  thy  brother  hath  aught  against  thee  ;  leave 
there  thy  gift  before  the  altar,  and  go  thy  way ; 
first  be  reconciled  to  thy  brother,  and  then  come 
and  offer  thy  gift."  ^  He  did  but  give  expression 
in  a  slightly  different  form  to  the  essential  princi- 
ple embodied  in  this  ecclesiastical  code  —  that  resto- 
ration must  precede  sacrifice.  So  far  as  we  know 
the  history  of  those  times,  no  such  abuse  ever  grew 
up  under  the  Levitical  code  as  that  form  of  indul- 
gence which  aroused  the  indignation  of  Luther  in 
the  sixteenth  century. 

IV.    Still  more  important  is  another  principle 

contained  in  this  code,  so  radical  that  I  suspect  its 

statement  here  will  arouse  the  suspicion,  if  it  does 

not  evoke  the  stout  denial,  of  the  reader :  the  sac- 

1  Lev.  vi.  2-7.  ^  Matt.  v.  23,  24. 


THE   CANON  LAW  159 

rifices  of  the  Levitical  code  were  never  offered  to 
satisfy  the  wrath  of  God,  nor  as  a  substitute  for 
penalty  pronounced  against  sin,  nor  as  a  means  of 
securing  divine  pardon  and  a  restoration  of  divine 
favor.  Sacrifice  and  penalty  are  never  connected 
in  the  Old  Testament ;  sacrifices  are  never  offered 
by  the  sinner  as  a  means  of  securing  remission  of 
penalty.  The  Levitical  sacrifice  was  a  means  for 
the  purification  of  the  sinner,  not  for  the  pacifica- 
tion of  Jehovah. 1  The  curious  ceremonial  which, 
according  to  this  code,  accompanied  and  distin- 
guished the  so-called  Day  of  Atonement  illustrates 
in  a  striking  manner  this  principle.  On  that  day, 
from  two  goats  brought  out  before  the  congregation, 
one  was  selected  by  lot  as  a  sacrifice  to  Jehovah, 
the  other  as  a  scapegoat.  The  first  was  killed  be- 
fore the  Lord ;  on  the  head  of  the  other  —  the 
scapegoat  —  the  sins  of  the  people  were  laid  in 
confession  by  the  priest,  and  he  was  then  led  off 
into  the  wilderness,  that  so  he  might  "  bear  upon 
him  all  their  iniquities  to  a  solitary  land,"  —  a  land 
from  which  he  could  never  return  to  bring  back  to 
the  people  the  sins  from  which  they  were  thus  de- 
livered.^ The  significance  of  this  primitive  object- 
lesson  should  be  as  clear  to  us  now  as  it  was  to  the 
people  then.     In  it  there  was  no  suggestion  of  a 

1  Lev.  xvii.  11,  "it  is  the  blood  that  maketh  an  atonement  for 
the  soul,"  will  be  regarded  by  some  as  an  exception  to  this  state- 
ment. If  so  it  stands  alone  ;  but  I  do  not  think  it  is  an  exception  ; 
there  is  nothing  in  the  phraseology  that  implies  the  pacification  of 
an  angry  God. 

^  Lev.  xvi. 


160      LIFE   AND    LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

wrath  to  be  appeased,  or  a  penalty  to  be  escaped ; 
its  suggestion  was  sin  removed  and  a  people  set 
free  from  its  burden.  The  object  of  sin-offering 
in  paganism  was  ahvays  to  appease  the  wrath  of  the 
gods ;  in  the  Levitical  system,  to  purify  the  soul  of 
the  worshiper.  In  paganism  sacrifice  was  a  means 
of  escape  from  penalty ;  in  Leviticalism,  a  means  of 
escape  fi-om  sin. 

V.  Finally,  the  Levitical  code  provided  for  its 
own  destruction.  In  that  code  it  was  expressly 
provided  that  sacrifice  could  be  offered  only  in  the 
temple  at  Jerusalem  by  the  priests.  In  the  begin- 
ning, as  we  have  seen,  this  was  not  the  case  :  sac- 
rifice might  be  offered  anywhere  by  any  devout 
soul.^  Whatever  the  intent  of  the  framer  of  this 
exclusive  provision,  its  providential  intent  is  clearly 
indicated  by  the  result  which  it  produced.  When 
the  city  of  Jerusalem  was  captured  and  the  temple 
destroyed,  the  entire  sacrificial  system  and  the  en- 
tire hierarchy  organized  to  administer  it  came  to 
an  end.  Both  have  now  entirely  disappeared  from 
Judaism.  Not  a  trace  is  left  behind  of  either  altar, 
sacrifice,  or  priest.  The  simple  and  fundamental 
principles  of  the  early  Mosaism  remain  —  the  faith 
that  God  is  a  righteous  God,  and  demands  right- 
eousness of  his  children  and  demands  nothing  else. 
But  no  Jew  offers  sacrifice  ;  no  Jewish  priest  con- 
ducts worship  ;  no  Jewish  altar  or  temple  exists  in 
all  the  world.  No  longer  anywhere  is  heard  the 
lowing  of  cattle,  the  bleating  of  sheep,  the  cooing 
1   Compare  Lev.  xvii.  4,  8, 9,  with  Exod.  xx.  24. 


THE    CANON  LAW  161 

of  doves,  no  longer  anywhere  are  seen  the  rivers  of 
blood  in  connection  with  any  worship  of  the  one 
God  such  as  characterized  the  temple  at  Jerusalem. 
The  sacrificial  code  has  served  its  temporary  pur- 
pose and  has  perished  absolutely,  leaving  in  Juda- 
ism no  remnant  in  existing  institutions  even  to 
memorialize  it. 

It  is  true  that  some  remnants  of  this  sacrificial 
system  have  passed  over  into  the  Christian  church. 
They  ai'e  seen  in  the  bloodless  sacrifice  of  the 
mass  in  the  Roman  Church  and  in  some  Anglican 
churches,  and  in  clauses  stating  in  terms  a  sacrificial 
theory  of  the  atonement  in  some  Protestant  creeds. 
Occasionally  still  is  heard  the  doctrine,  supposed  to 
have  been  foreshadowed  by  the  Levitical  code,  that 
a  great  sacrifice  has  been  offered  once  for  all  as  a 
means  of  satisfying  divine  justice,  if  not  of  appeas- 
ing divine  wrath  and  securing  a  purchased  pardon 
which  God  cannot  consistently  grant  without  an 
innocent  victim  to  bear  the  penalty  which  of  right 
should  be  inflicted  upon  the  guilty.  But  this  rem- 
nant of  an  ancient  ritual  gradually  disappears  be- 
fore the  growing  faith  in  the  love  of  God,  as  the 
snows  even  in  the  remoter  crevices  of  the  rock 
are  melted  by  the  spring  sun ;  gradually  we  are 
learning  that  sacrifice  is  not  a  means  by  which 
penitence  secures  pardon,  but  the  method  by  which 
mercy  confers  life.  It  is  not  the  child's  sacrifice 
which  wins  forgiveness  from  the  mother ;  it  is  the 
mother's  sacrifice  which  wins  repentance  from  the 
child.     It  is  not  the  sacrifice  offered  by  man,  or  on 


162      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

Lis  behalf,  which  purchases  remission  of  penalty 
from  a  righteous  judge ;  it  is  the  sacrifice  offered 
by  God  and  on  his  behalf  which  achieves  remission 
of  sin  for  the  repentant  sinner.  Slowly,  very 
slowly,  we  are  learning  the  meaning  veiled  in  that 
solemn  and  splendid  story  miscalled  the  sacrifice 
of  Isaac,  —  "  God  will  provide  himself  the  lamb  for 
a  burnt  offering,  my  son."  ^ 

In  Homer,  to  ward  off  a  pestilence  which  Phoe- 
bus, in  her  wrath,  has  sent  upon  the  Greeks,  "  the 
wise  Ulysses  "  offers  up  a 

"  hallowed  hecatomb 
To  Phoebus,  for  the  Greeks  ;  that  so  the  god 
Whose  wrath  afflicts  us  sore  may  be  appeased." 

In  the  Fourth  Gospel  the  Apostle  John  declares 
that 

"  God  so  loved  the  world  that  he  gave  his  only  be- 
gotten Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  him  shovdd  not 
perish  but  have  everlasting  life." 

In  the  pagan  conception  God  is  wrathful ;  in  the 
Christian  conception  God  is  love.  In  the  pagan 
conception  man  is  wiser  and  better  than  the  gods 
who  are  destroying  him  ;  in  the  Christian  concep- 
tion man  is  destroying  himself  by  his  own  igno- 
rance and  sin.  In  the  pagan  conception  the  sacrifice 
is  offered  by  man  to  the  gods  ;  in  the  Christian 
conception  it  is  offered  by  God  for  man.  In  the 
pagan  conception  the  peril  comes  from  God  to 
man,  the  sacrifice  goes  from  man  to  God  ;  in  the 
•  ^  Gen.  xxii.  8. 


THE    CANON  LAW  163 

Christian  conception  the  peril  comes  from  man  to 
himself,  the  salvation  comes  from  God  for  man, 
through  God's  act  of  seZ/'-sacrifice.  The  history  of 
sacrifice  in  the  Old  Testament  is  the  history  of  the 
process  by  which  the  pagan  conception  was  trans- 
formed into  the  Christian  conception  ;  the  Levitical 
Code  is  the  bridge  by  which  Israel  passed  over 
from  the  pagan  belief  that  sacrifice  is  a  condition 
of  forgiveness  which  God  exacts,  to  the  Christian 
doctrine  that  self-sacrifice  is  the  method  by  which 
God  confers  forgiveness. 


CHAPTER  VII 

HEBREW   FICTION 

The  suggestion  that  there  are  works  of  fiction 
in  the  Bible  certainly  at  one  time  would  have 
aroused  protest,  if  not  resentment,  and  it  is  possi- 
ble that  there  may  still  linger  in  the  minds  of 
some  a  remnant  of  this  feeling.  It  is  largely  due 
to  two  reasons.  The  first  is  an  impression  that 
the  suffffestion  of  fiction  in  the  Bible  has  been 
invented  by  those  who  desire  to  eliminate  from  it 
the  supernatural.  Doubtless  it  is  true  that  there 
are  some  critics  who  desire  to  eliminate  the  super- 
natural from  the  Bible,  and  who  therefore  seek  to 
show  that  everything  which  seems  to  be  super- 
natural is  imaginative.  This  is  not  the  scientific, 
it  is  not  the  literary,  spirit.^  The  true  scientific 
spirit  does  not  assume  that  there  can  be  nothing 
supernatural  in  life  ;  it   studies   life  to  ascertain 

^  Dean  Farrar's  statement  of  his  own  position  on  this  subject 
may  be  accepted  as  an  admirable  definition  of  the  general  position 
of  all  evangelical  scholai'S  of  the  modern  or  evolutionary  school. 
He  says  :  "  I  vrithhold  my  credence  from  no  occurrence  —  how- 
ever much  it  may  be  called  '  miraculous  '  —  which  is  adequately 
attested  ;  which  was  wrought  for  adequate  ends  ;  and  which  is  in 
accordance  with  the  revealed  laws  of  God's  immediate  dealing 
with  man."     The  Bible,  by  F.  W.  Farrar,  D.  D.,  F.  R.  S.,  p.  241. 


HEBREW  FICTION  165 

what  is  in  it.  The  truly  literary  spirit  does  not 
assume  that  there  is  nothing  supernatural  in  litera- 
ture ;  it  studies  literature  to  ascertain  what  is  its 
character  and  what  are  the  motive  and  purpose 
of  each  author.  No  literary  critic  would  think  of 
classifying  the  story  of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus 
Christ  among  works  of  fiction  or  imagination.  He 
might  think  the  narrative  incorrect,  but  he  would 
not  doubt  that  it  belongs  among  historical  works 
—  that  is,  that  the  authors  believed  that  they  were 
narrating  facts.  The  mere  circumstance  that  an 
incident  narrated  in  the  Old  Testament  is  extraor- 
dinary does  not  afford  the  slightest  indication  that 
it  is  fiction.  The  question  whether  any  narrative 
is  history  or  fiction  is  not  identical  with  the  ques- 
tion whether  it  is  true  or  false.  The  literary  clas- 
sification of  a  narrative  depends  upon  the  motive 
of  the  author,  not  upon  the  accuracy  of  the  narra- 
tive. The  author  of  fiction  gives  free  play  to  his 
imagination,  and  his  work  is  not  the  less  fictitious 
because  he  interweaves  some  historical  truth  with 
his  imaginative  narrative  ;  the  historian  assumes 
to  narrate  facts,  and  his  work  is  history  despite 
the  fact  that  he  may  be  misled  into  the  most  seri- 
ous errors  in  his  nai-rative.  Herodotus  is  a  writer 
of  history ;  although  Macaulay  assures  us  that 
"  he  is  from  the  first  to  the  last  chapter  an  in- 
ventor." Dumas  is  a  writer  of  fiction  ;  although 
his  editor  affirms  that  "  contemporary  authority 
can  be  cited  for  every  anecdote  or  incident  not  di- 
rectly connected  with   the  distinctively  romantic 


166      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

portions  of  the  narrative."  The  question  whether 
any  particular  nai'rative  in  the  Old  Testament  — 
the  Book  of  Jonah,  for  example  —  is  history  or 
fiction  is  not  to  be  determined  by  considering 
whether  the  book  contains  extraordinary  events, 
but  by  considering  the  question  whether  its  gen- 
eral spirit  and  structure  are  such  as  to  justify  the 
belief  that  the  author  thought  himself  narrating 
facts  as  they  actually  occurred,  or  whether  he  con- 
sciously gave  a  free  rein  to  his  imagination  as  he 
wrote. 

A  second  reason  for  the  objection  to  the  sugges- 
tion that  there  is  fiction  in  the  Bible  is  a  remnant 
of  a  Puritan  prejudice  which  everywhere  except  in 
its  relation  to  the  Bible  has  long  since  disappeared. 
The  Puritans  opposed  all  manifestations  of  the  im- 
agination. They  destroyed  the  pictured  windows 
in  the  churches ;  took  down  the  pictures  from  the 
walls  of  the  houses ;  broke  in  jjieces  the  statues  in 
the  niches;  closed  the  doors  of  the  theatres  and 
forbade  the  drama ;  and  banished  the  works  of 
fiction  from  their  tables.  No  doubt  some  readers 
of  this  article  can  remember,  in  their  own  child- 
hood days,  how  novels  of  every  description  were 
looked  ujoon  askance,  if  not  with  absolute  reproba- 
tion, in  their  own  circles.  We  have  emerged  into 
an  epoch  in  which  this  banishing  of  the  imagina- 
tion is  no  longer  permitted  because  it  is  no  longer 
necessary.  We  admit  the  pictured  windows  to  the 
churches  ;  we  hang  pictures  on  the  walls  of  our 
houses  ;    we   have   replaced   the   statues   even   of 


HEBREW  FICTION  167 

pagan  deities  in  their  nicLes,  reopened  the  doors 
of  the  theatres,  and  novels  lie  on  all  our  tables. 
In  brief,  we  recognize  the  fact  that  imagination  is 
a  divinely  given  faculty,  not  to  be  suppressed,  but 
to  be  freely  used.  Why,  then,  should  we  think  it 
strange  that  God  should  have  used  the  same  fac- 
ulty in  the  education  of  the  Hebrew  race?  If 
to-day  it  is  one  of  his  instruments  for  the  develop- 
ment of  humanity,  why  should  we  think  it  impos- 
sible that  in  the  olden  time  he  should  have  inspired 
men  to  use  their  imagination  for  the  moral  and 
spiritual  culture  of  the  race  ? 

In  truth,  the  works  of  imagination  have  a  very 
high  and  a  very  varied  service  to  perform.  Fiction 
is,  in  the  first  place,  entertaining  and  gives  rest. 
The  little  child,  left  alone  at  night  by  the  mother, 
whispers  softly  to  itself  a  story  and  so  talks  itself 
to  sleep ;  when  we  have  lost  the  imagination  of 
our  childhood,  we  ask  some  genius  who  still  retains 
it  to  tell  us  his  story,  that  he  may  sweep  out  of  our 
minds  for  a  little  while  the  cares  and  perplexities 
of  our  busy  day,  that  in  his  narrative  we  may  find 
rest  and  refreshment.  Fiction  is  sometimes  a  valu- 
able vehicle  for  the  conveyance  of  instruction.  It 
is  true  that  there  are  critics  who  say  that  a  work 
of  imagination  never  should  be  didactic  ;  but  who 
would  banish  from  literature  Bunyan's  "  Pilgrim's 
Progress,"  or  "  Oliver  Twist,"  or  "  Put  Yourself  in 
His  Place"  because  they  are  didactic?  Some  of 
the  greatest  of  our  novelists  have  written  for  the 
purpose  of  illustrating  truth,  moral,  religious,  or 


168      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF    THE   HEBREWS 

sociological.  Fiction  is  descriptive  and  interpre- 
tative. The  imagination  tells  us  much  of  life  with 
which  otherwise  we  should  be  unfamiliar.  If  we 
desire  pictures  of  old-time  life  we  shall  find  them 
more  vivid  in  "  Henry  Esmond,"  "  Lorna  Doone," 
or  "  Quentin  Durward,"  than  in  Green's  "  History 
of  England  ;  "  because  the  novelist  has  a  free  hand 
with  which  to  picture  the  life  that  he  desires  to  set 
before  us.  If  we  desire  to  know  how  the  other  half 
of  the  world  lives,  we  shall  find  it  more  vividly  por- 
trayed in  such  a  novel  as  Walter  Besant's  "All 
Sorts  and  Conditions  of  Men  "  than  in  such  a  sta- 
tistical work  as  Charles  Booth's  "  Labor  and  the 
Poor  in  London."  Fiction  is  interpretative  of  life 
as  well  as  descriptive  of  it.  The  great  novelist 
understands  the  principles  of  human  nature  and 
portrays  them  —  not  philosophically,  not  psycho- 
logically, but  dramatically  ;  so  that  by  sharing  his 
imagination  we  share  his  understanding.  If  he  be 
really  a  great  dramatist,  he  realizes  not  only  the 
outer  life,  but  the  moral  forces  which  are  at  work 
in  the  world,  and  he  so  portrays  life  that  those 
moral  forces  appear  before  us ;  he  does  not  so 
much  give  instruction  as  impart  life  through  the 
ministry  of  life.  It  would  be  a  mistake  to  say  that 
Shakespeare  wrote  "  Macbeth  "  to  show  the  evils 
of  ambition,  or  "  Othello  "  to  show  the  evils  of 
jealousy,  or  "  Hamlet "  to  show  the  evils  of  irreso- 
lution ;  but,  none  the  less,  the  great  interpreter  of 
human  life  could  not  tell  the  story  of  jealousy,  of 
ambition,  or  of  irresolution  without  making  us  feel, 


HEBREW  FICTION  1G9 

rather  than  see,  their  evil.  Thus  fiction  not  only 
entertains,  instructs,  describes,  interprets,  but  in- 
spires ;  by  showing  noble  life,  it  quickens  noble 
life  in  us ;  by  showing  ignoble  life,  it  inspires  us 
with  hate  against  what  is  ignoble. 

Fiction  in  the  Old  Testament  serves  all  these 
purposes.  Some  of  these  Hebrew  stories  are  vastly 
entertaining.  If  one  doubts  it,  let  him  read  the 
Old  Testament  story  of  Daniel  or  Samson  or 
Elijah  to  a  group  of  children ;  he  will  find  them 
not  less  interested  than  they  would  be  in  any  story 
to  be  found  in  Greek  or  Roman  literature.  Some 
of  these  Hebrew  stories  are  didactic,  written  for 
the  purpose  of  conveying  moral  instruction  ;  the 
parables  of  Christ  are  preeminently  so.  Some 
of  them  are  simply  descriptive.  We  get,  for  in- 
stance, from  the  accoimt  of  Eliezer's  courtship  of 
Rebecca  for  his  master's  son  ^  a  better  picture  of 
the  way  in  which  courtships  were  conducted  in 
patriarchal  times  than  we  could  possibly  get  from 
accurate  history.  We  find  in  these  stories,  also, 
interpretations  of  life  ;  love  and  jealousy,  joy  and 
sorrow,  courage  and  cowardice,  virtue  struggling 
with  vice  and  vanquishing  it,  vice  struggling  with 
virtue  and  vanquishing  it,  all  this  we  find  por- 
trayed with  moral  simplicity  nowhere  surpassed, 
with  dramatic  power  never  degenerating  into  the 
melodramatic.  In  them  all,  with  tlie  entertain- 
ment, the  didactic  teaching,  the  description  of  ex- 
ternal life,  the  portrayal  of  character,  we  find  life 

1  Gen.  chap.  xxiv. 


170      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

imiiarted  through  life  ;  and  therefore  in  them  all 
we  can  discover  that  inspiration  which  is  more  than 
instruction.  It  is  a  mistake  to  think,  as  men  of 
the  Puritan  temiierament  have  sometimes  seemed 
to  think,  that  all  life  comes  through  the  intellect, 
and  that  we  must  understand  before  we  can  re- 
ceive. A  great  deal  comes  through  the  sympa- 
thies, the  emotions,  the  imagination,  and  through 
these  the  writer  of  fiction  often  addresses  himself 
to  us  more  effectively  than  either  the  historian, 
the  philosopher,  or  the  moralist. 

A  single  illustration  taken  from  the  Book  of 
Judges  will  serve  to  demonstrate  to  the  more  con- 
servative reader  that  there  is  some  fiction  in  the 
Old  Testament.  It  is  the  parable  of  the  trees, 
and  reads  as  follows  :  — 

"  The  trees  went  forth  on  a  time  to  anoint  a  king 
over  them :  and  they  said  unto  the  olive-tree,  Reign 
thou  over  us.  But  the  ohve-tree  said  unto  them,  Should 
I  leave  my  fatness,  wherewith  by  me  they  honor  God 
and  man,  and  go  to  be  promoted  over  the  trees  ?  And 
the  trees  said  to  the  fig-tree.  Come  thou,  and  reign  over 
us.  But  the  fig-tree  said  unto  them,  Should  I  forsake 
my  sweetness,  and  my  good  fruit,  and  go  to  be  pro- 
moted over  the  trees  ?  Then  said  the  trees  unto  the 
vine,  Come  thou,  and  reign  over  us.  And  the  vine  said 
unto  them,  Should  I  leave  my  wine,  which  cheereth  God 
and  man,  and  go  to  be  promoted  over  the  trees  ?  Then 
said  all  the  trees  imto  the  bramble.  Come  thou,  and 
reign  over  us.  And  the  bramble  said  mito  the  trees, 
If  in  truth  ye  anoint  me  king  over  you,  then  come 
and  put  your  trust  in  my  shadow  :  and  if  not,  let  fire 


HEBREW   FICTION  171 

come  out  of   the  bramble,   and  devour  the   cedars   of 
Lebanon."  ^ 

No  one  will  doubt  that  this  is  fiction.  And  yet 
it  would  be  quite  as  possible  for  God  to  make  a 
tree  that  could  talk  as  an  ass  that  could  talk,  or  a 
big  fish  that  could  swallow  a  man  and  a  man  that 
could  live  three  days  and  three  nights  in  the  belly 
of  the  big  fish.  There  is  no  question  of  possible  or 
impossible  with  God.  Our  question  always  must 
be,  not  what  God  can  do,  but  what  it  is  reasonable 
to  believe  that  he  has  done.  We  believe  that  this 
parable  of  the  trees  is  fiction,  because  it  has  the 
qualities  of  fiction,  because  it  is  more  reasonable  to 
suppose  that  the  author  invented  the  story  to  serve 
as  the  vehicle  of  a  moral,  than  to  suppose  that  God 
created  talking  trees  and  brought  them  together  in 
a  quasi-political  convention  for  that  purpose.  This 
parable,  therefore,  not  only  illustrates  the  truth 
that  there  is  fiction  in  the  Old  Testament,  but  it 
indicates  the  method  by  which  we  are  to  determine 
what  is  fiction  and  what  is  history. 

All  readers  recognize  that  the  parables  in  the 
Bible  are  fiction  ;  many  of  them  are  less  read}^  to 
recognize  its  folk-lore.^     By  folk-lore  I  mean  the 

^  Judges  ix.  8-15. 

"^  Mrs.  L.  S.  Houghton  has  recently  published  in  the  N.  Y. 
Evangelist  an  admirable  series  of  Studies  in  the  Old  Testament 
■which,  doubtless,  will  be  republished  in  book  form.  Two  of  them 
are  devoted  to  "  Folk  Lore  in  the  Old  Testament."  Folk  lore 
she  defines  as  "  the  narrative  of  events  passed  along  from  lip  to 
lip  down  through  the  ages."  As  illustrations  of  such  stories,  of 
which  the  inspired  writers  have  made  use,  she  specifies  Joshua's 


172      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF    THE    HEBREWS 

stories  which  mothers  tell  their  ehikli-cn,  and  which 
pass  from  generation  to  generation,  sometimes  in 
later  history  printed,  sometimes  never  reduced  to 
print ;  all  peoples  have  such  folk-lore,  and  the 
Hebrew  people  had  theirs.  Such  were  some  of 
the  stories  subsequently  incorporated  in  the  Book 
of  Genesis ;  such  some  of  the  tales  respecting 
Elisha ;  such,  probably,  the  account  of  the  boy- 
hood exploits  of  King  David ;  such,  certainly,  the 
story  of  Samson. 

Samson  lived  in  the  colonial  days  of  Israel,  when 
there  was  no  king,  and  every  man  did  what  was 
right  in  his  own  eyes.  His  birth  was  heralded  by 
an  angelic  messenger  ;  he  was  consecrated  to  the 
life  of  a  Nazarite  from  his  cradle  by  his  mother ; 
he  drank  no  wine,  ate  no  grapes,  suffered  the  locks 
of  his  hair  to  go  uncut,  and  in  his  youth  gave 
token  of  that  extraordinary  strength  which  has 
since  rendered  his  name  proverbial. 

We  first  meet  this  Hebrew  unheroic  hero  on 
his  way  to  Timnath.  A  Philistine  maiden  has 
captured  his  fancy  by  her  beauty,  and,  despite  the 
law,  the  protests  of  his  parents,  the  mission  to 
which  he  is  called  by  God  as  deliverer  of  his  peo- 
ple, to  Timnath  he  will  go.  The  Philistine  maiden 
plays  the  coquette  with  him,  cajoles  him  out  of  his 
secret,  and  tells  to  his  Philistine  guests  the  answer 

staying  of  the  sun  and  moon,  the  story  of  Samson,  certain  of  the 
Elijah  and  Elisha  stories,  certain  of  the  narratives  in  Genesis 
which  the  element  of  folk  lore  enters  into  and  modifies,  and  many 
other  of  the  Bihlical  narratives. 


HEBREW  FICTION'  173 

to  the  riddle  which  he  has  proposed.  To  pay  his 
wager  of  thirty  changes  of  raiment  he  goes  alone 
across  the  country  and  takes  the  raiment  from  a 
Philistine  city ;  but  his  pride  is  wounded  by  the 
deceit  which  has  been  practiced  upon  him,  and 
when  the  Philistine  coquette  marries  one  of  the 
guests  who  had  come  to  his  betrothal,  he  catches 
three  hundred  jackals,^  ties  them  together  two  by 
two  by  the  tails,  fastens  a  firebrand  to  each  pair, 
and  lets  them  loose  in  the  harvest  season  to  set 
fire  to  the  Philistines'  standing  wheat.  Then, 
when  the  Philistines,  with  singular  injustice,  visit 
their  wrath  on  the  bride  and  her  father,  putting 
her  to  death,  Samson,  with  characteristic  fickle- 
ness, smites  them  hip  and  thigh  with  a  great 
slaughter.  We  next  find  him  in  the  hands  of 
more  formidable  foes.  When  the  Philistines  come 
up  to  avenge  their  wrongs  on  the  nation  which 
shelters    Samson,  and   the   Israelites  deliver  him 

1  "  Many  interpreters,  reflecting  that  the  solitary  habits  of  the 
fox  would  make  it  very  difficult  to  catch  such  a  number,  and  that 
Samson's  g^eat  strength  would  be  of  no  avail  in  such  an  under- 
taking, suppose  that  the  author  meant  jackals,  which  roam  in 
packs,  and  could  easily,  it  is  said,  be  caught  by  the  hundred. 
That  the  Hebrew  name  may  have  included  jackals  as  well  as 
foxes  is  quite  possible  ;  the  Arabs  are  said  in  some  places  to  con- 
found the  jackal  with  the  fox,  and  in  the  modern  Egyptian  dialect 
the  classical  name  of  the  fox  is  given  exclusively  to  the  jackal. 
The  decision  of  the  question  is  of  importance  only  to  those  who 
take  the  story  as  a  veracious  account  of  an  actual  occurrence. 
They  should  consider,  however,  whether  the  author  would  thauk 
them  for  their  attempts  to  make  Samson's  wonderful  perform- 
ance easy."  Judges :  in  the  International  Critical  Commentarii,  by 
George  Foot  Moore,  p.  341. 


174      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE   OF   TUE   HEBREWS 

bound  into  their  hands,  he  submits  without  oppo- 
sition, only  to  break  the  cords  which  bind  him, 
leap  upon  his  would-be  captors  with  a  shout,  and 
slay  a  thousand  of  them  with  his  own  hands,  with 
no  other  weapon  than  the  jaw-bone  of  an  ass,  and 
afterwards  celebrates  his  exploit  with  a  running 
couplet :  — 

"  With  the  jaw-bone  of  an  ass, 
I  assailed  my  assailants  ; 
With  the  jaw-bone  of  an  ass, 
Have  I  slain  a  thousand  men."  ^ 

Twenty  years  later  we  meet  him  in  Gaza,  a  Phi- 
listine city,  whither,  still  yielding  himself  a  slave  to 
his  unbridled  self-will  and  self-indulgent  spirit,  he 
has  gone  in  pursuit  of  a  Philistine  woman.  The 
Philistines  close  the  gates  and  set  a  watch  to  catch 
him  at  the  dawn.  At  midnight  he  goes  out,  takes 
the  gates  and  posts  upon  his  back  and  carries  them 
off,  in  scornful  disdain  of  their  boasted  strength. 
Such  a  man,  weak  in  the  conceit  of  his  own  strength, 
never  learns  life's  lessons.  He  falls  in  with  an- 
other Philistine  woman,  sets  his  heart  upon  her, 
and,  with  a  folly  for  which  there  is  no  palliation, 
walks  open-eyed  into  the  trap  the  treacherous  Deli- 
lah has  set  for  him.  She  undertakes  to  get  fi-om 
him  the  secret  of  his  superhuman  strength.  Three 
times  he  mocks  her  with  lying  answers ;  three  times 
discovers  her  treachery,  and,  despite  it  all,  at  last 

1  Judges  XV.  16.  There  is  a  play  upon  the  Hebrew  word  which 
means  both  ass  and  heap  that  cannot  be  imitated  in  the  English ; 
as  though  he  had  said,  "  With  the  jaw-bone  of  an  ass,  asses  on 
asses,  have  I  slain  a  thousand  men." 


HEBREW  FICTION  175 

tells  her  the  secret,  lies  down  to  sleep  with  his  head 
upon  her  lap,  to  awake,  his  vow  broken,  his  locks 
shaven,  his  strength  gone,  and  himself  an  easy  prey- 
to  his  enemies.  In  servitude  he  learns  that  lesson 
of  self-denial  which  he  would  learn  nowhere  else, 
grinds  away  in  the  prison-house  of  his  foes,  little 
by  little  gathers  his  strength,  and  in  one  last  bar- 
baric yet  heroic  effort  brings  down  the  temple  of 
the  Philistines'  god,  Dagon,  upon  himself  and  upon 
the  worshipers  assembled  to  exult  over  him. 

This  story,  found  anywhere  but  in  Hebrew  lit- 
erature, we  should  assume  to  be  that  half-fiction, 
half-history  of  which  such  stories  in  primitive  lit- 
erature are  always  composed ;  not  only  we  should, 
we  do  assume  it  to  be  such;  for  the  story  of  Samson 
in  Hebrew  literature  and  the  story  of  Hercules  in 
Greek  literature  remai'kably  parallel  each  other.^ 
To  the  same  Semitic  origin  both  names  are  traced 
by  linguists.  Both  are  men  of  extraordinary 
strength ;  of  both  specifically  the  same  traditions 
are  told  ;  both  slay  a  lion  with  their  own  hands ; 
both  suffer  death,  though  in  different  ways,  at  the 
hands  of  their  treacherous  wives.  One,  a  captive  in 
Philistia,  summoned  to  make  sport  for  his  enemies, 
pulls  down  the  Temple  of  Dagon,  and  buries  him- 
self and  the  Philistines  under  its  ruins ;  the  other, 
a  captive  in  Egypt,  led  forth  to  be  sacrificed  to 
Jupiter,   breaks   the   bands   which  bind  him,  and 

^  See  the  parallel  traced  in  detail  by  Professor  George  F. 
Moore  in  his  commentary  on  Judges,  The  International  Critical 
Commentary,  pp.  364,  365. 


176      LIFE   AND    LITERATURE    OF    THE   HEBREWS 

slays  the  priests  and  scatters  the  assemblage.  Even 
the  custom  of  tying  a  lighted  torch  between  two 
foxes  in  the  circus,  in  memory  of  the  damage  once 
done  the  harvest-fields,  was  long  kept  up  in  Greece 
—  a  singular  witness  to  the  extent  of  this  atlilete's 
reputation.  The  modern  or  literary  critic  of  the 
Bible,  whose  point  of  view  is  that  given  in  the  first 
article  of  this  series,  sees  no  reason  for  thinking 
that  the  same  substantial  stories  are  fiction  when 
found  in  Greek  literature  and  history  when  found 
in  Hebrew  literature.  The  value  of  the  stories  does 
not  depend  upon  their  historical  vraisemhlance ; 
their  value  is  in  their  ethical  significance.  The 
lesson  of  the  life  is  plain :  muscular  strength  mated 
to  moral  weakness  never  makes  a  hero ;  the  man 
who  lacks  self-control  can  never  be  the  deliverer  or 
the  true  leader  of  a  people. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

SOME   ELEBREW   STORIES   RETOLD 

That  fiction  was  deliberately  used  for  didactic 
purposes  in  the  parable  by  the  Hebrew  is  doubted 
by  none ;  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  it  was 
half  consciously  used  by  story-tellers  in  folk-lore ; 
and  if  we  judge  of  Hebrew  literature  by  the  ordi- 
nary literary  standards,  it  is  equally  clear  that  it 
was  sometimes  artistically  used  by  skillful  story- 
tellers for  the  entertainment  and  inspiration  of 
their  readers.  Two  notable  illustrations  of  such 
use  are  afforded,  one  by  an  Idyl  of  the  Common 
People,  and  the  other  by  a  Historical  Romance. 
The  first,^  although  it  describes  scenes  taking  place 
prior  to  the  organization  of  Israel  as  a  kingdom, 
was  almost  certainly  written  after  the  return  from 
the  exile. 

In  their  captivity  the  children  of  Israel  had 
learned  to  hate  the  heathen  with  hatred  so  strong 
that  it  finds  expression  in  the  phrase,  "  Happy  is 
he  that  shall  take  thy  little  ones  and  dash  them 
against   the  stones."  ^     With  this  not   unnatural 

1  The  place  of  Ruth  in  the  Biblical  genealogies  (Ruth  iv.  22 ; 
Matt.  i.  5)  indicates  very  clearly  that  there  is  an  historical  back- 
ground for  this  story,  as  its  structure  indicates  very  clearly  that 
it  is  in  its  spirit  and  form  a  work  of  fiction. 

^  Psalm  cxxxvii.  9. 


178      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

spirit  in  their  hearts  they  return  to  the  holy  land ; 
in  the  period  of  their  colonization  a  new  patriotism 
is  born,  —  narrow,  intense,  bigoted,  yet  genuine. 
The  laws  against  any  fellowship  with  foreigners  are 
revised,  if  indeed  they  are  not  now  first  enacted ; 
esjDecially  marriage  with  foreigners  is  condemned 
by  the  priests  with  great  vehemence.^  Then  it  is 
that  some  unknown  dramatist  writes  the  story  of 
Euth.2 

A  Jew  and  his  wife,  driven  by  famine  from 
Judea,  seek  refuge  in  Moab,  a  heathen  country. 

1  Ezra  ix.  11,  12  ;  x.  10-17  ;  Neh.  xiii.  23-27. 

^  I  accept,  partly  for  the  reasons  implied  in  the  above  passage, 
a  post-exilic  date  for  the  Book  of  Ruth,  though  the  date  is  con- 
fessedly uncertain  ;  Dr.  Driver  places  it  prior  to  the  exile.  In- 
troduction to  the  Literature  of  the  Old  Testament,  p.  455. 

Dr.  W.  Robertson  Smith's  argument  appears  to  me  weighty  if 
not  conclusive  in  favor  of  the  later  date  :  "  If  the  book  had  been 
known  at  the  time  when  the  history  from  Judges  to  Kings  was 
edited,  it  could  hardly  have  been  excluded  from  the  collection  ; 
the  ancestry  of  David  was  of  greater  interest  than  that  of  Saul, 
which  is  given  in  1  Sam.  ix.  1,  whereas  the  old  history  named  no 
ancestor  of  David  beyond  his  father  Jesse.  In  truth  the  book  of 
Ruth  does  not  offer  itself  as  a  document  written  soon  after  the 
period  to  which  it  refers  ;  it  j)resents  itself  as  dealing  with  times 
far  back  (Ruth  i.  1),  and  takes  obvious  delight  in  depicting  details 
of  antique  life  and  obsolete  usages ;  it  views  the  rude  and  stormy 
period  before  the  institution  of  the  kingship  through  the  softening 
atmosphere  of  time,  which  imparts  to  the  scene  a  gentle  sweet- 
ness very  different  from  the  harsher  color  of  the  old  narratives  of 
the  book  of  Judges.  In  the  language,  too,  there  is  a  good  deal 
that  makes  for  and  nothing  that  makes  against  a  date  subsequent 
to  the  captivity,  and  the  very  designation  of  a  period  of  Hebrew 
history  as  '  the  days  of  the  Judges  '  is  based  on  the  Deuteronoraistic 
additions  to  the  book  of  Judges  (ii.  16  sq.)  and  does  not  occur  till 
the  period  of  the  exile."     Encijclopcedia  Britannica,  article  Ruth. 


SOME   HEBREW   STORIES   RETOLD  179 

Two  sons  are  born  to  tliem,  and  two  daugliters-in- 
law  come  into  the  borne.  Then  the  husband  dies, 
the  sons  die,  and  the  widow  and  her  two  daughters- 
in-law,  both  Moabites,  are  left.  In  her  poverty 
Naomi's  thoughts  return  to  the  land  of  her  fathers, 
and  she  resolves  to  return  thither.  The  daughters 
start  to  go  back  with  her.  She  pleads  with  them 
to  leave  her.  "Can  I  furnish  you  husbands?"  she 
says.  "  I  am  too  old.  And  were  I  to  marry  and 
to  have  sons,  you  could  not  tarry  till  they  gTew. 
Go  back,  and  leave  me  to  my  wretchedness."  One 
yields.  The  other,  in  an  ever-memorable  address, 
insists  on  casting  in  her  lot  with  her  mother-in-law : 
"  Whither  thou  goest,  I  will  go  ;  where  thou  lodg- 
est,  I  will  lodge  ;  thy  people  shall  be  my  people, 
and  thy  God  shall  be  my  God."  ^ 

So  they  come,  mother  and  daughter-in-law,  in 
want  and  wretchedness,  to  the  land  from  which  the 
mother  had  gone  forth  some  years  before.  It  is 
the  time  of  the  barley  harvest.  An  ancient  Jewish 
law  provides  that  when  men  are  reaping  in  their 
fields  they  shall  leave  the  chance  wheat  which  falls 
for  the  poor  to  glean  .^  This  is  not,  it  appears,  a 
dead  letter ;  and  Ruth  goes  out  into  the  barley 
harvest-field  to  glean  for  herself  and  her  mother. 
She  happens  to  light  upon  the  field  of  Boaz,  and 
begins  gleaning,  having  first  asked  permission, 
which  is  granted  her.     Boaz  seems  to  me  to  have 

1  Ruth  i.  16. 

-  Deut.  xxiv.  19-22  ;  probably  a  local  custom  before  it  was 
framed  into  a  law.     See  chapter  on  The  Book  of  the  Covenant. 


180      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   UE BREWS 

fallen  iu  love  with  this  young  widow  at  first  sight, 
for  when  he  sees  her  he  distinguishes  her  from  all 
the  gleaners  in  the  field,  and  asks  the  reapers  who 
she  is.  Then  he  summons  her,  and  says  to  her : 
"  Glean  on,  and  if  you  are  thirsty,  drink  out  of  the 
same  water-jar  as  the  young  men  ;  and  when  we 
sit  down  to  our  noon  meal,  sit  with  us  and  dip 
your  morsel  of  bread  in  our  sour  wine."  So  our 
dramatist  depicts  the  Moabitess  eating  and  drink- 
ing with  the  pious  Jews.  He  is  too  wise  and  too 
artistic  to  point  the  moral,  but  as  the  Jew  reads 
the  story  his  prejudices  begin  to  disappear.  After 
the  noon  meal  Boaz  tells  the  young  men  not  to  reap 
very  carefully.  "  Be  careless,"  he  says,  "  and  drop 
handfuls  of  barley  in  your  reaping  on  purpose  for 
her." 

One  can  easily  see  the  picture  so  vividly  put 
before  us :  these  young  men  reaping,  the  young 
widow  following  after  and  looking  with  great  won- 
dering eyes  at  their  careless  ways  in  leaving  such 
handfuls  of  barley  for  her  to  gather,  and  perhaps 
wondering  if  they  are  in  love  with  her,  that  they 
are  so  providing  for  her;  and  Boaz  meanwhile 
looking  out  of  the  corners  of  his  eyes,,  glad  in  her 
gladness.  I  wonder  whether,  when  they  were  mar- 
ried, if  he  ever  told  her  how  it  happened?  She 
goes  back  to  her  mother,  and  tells  the  story  of  her 
adventure.  She  has  lost  all  hope  of  a  new  hus- 
band in  leaving  the  land  of  Moab  and  coming  to 
Israel,  for  what  Israelite  would  marry  a  Moabite  ? 
But  a  mother's  cunning;  is  more  than  a  match  for 


SO.\fE   HEBREW  STORIES   RETOLD  181 

either  legal  provisions  or  race  prejudices.  She 
contrives  how  a  good  match  shall  be  made  for  this 
daughter  of  hers.  "  Go  back,"  she  says,  "  my 
daughter,  and  when  night  has  come,  and  the  har- 
vesters lie  down  to  their  sleep  upon  the  harvest 
floor,  lie  down,  too,  at  the  feet  of  Boaz." 

One  thing  that  makes  me  think  that  he  fell  in 
love  with  her  at  first  sight  is  that  already  he  had 
sent  out  into  the  village  to  find  out  who  she  was, 
and  had  learned  from  her  neighbors  that  she  was 
a  virtuous  woman.  But  love  is  always  timid ;  and 
though  he  is  rich,  he  is,  unhappily,  too  old,  and 
has,  so  he  thinks,  no  chance  with  this  fair  young 
widow.  But  when  he  wakes,  and  finds  her  at  his 
feet,  and  asks,  "Who  is  this?"  and  learns,  in- 
stantly it  flashes  upon  him  that  there  is  some  one 
else  in  love  beside  himself,  and  he  turns  to  her 
with  "  Bless  thee,  my  daughter,  that  thou  hast  not 
fallen  in  love  with  a  young  man,  rich  or  poor." 
You  easily  fill  up  the  rest  of  the  sentence ;  you 
know  with  whom  she  has  fallen  in  love.  It  is 
quaint  courtship  of  the  ancient  time ;  a  charming 
love  story,  much  better  told  in  the  old  book  than 
told  here.  I  hope  this  telling  will  send  the  reader 
to  the  original.  Land  that  once  belonged  to  Eli- 
melech,  Naomi's  husband,  has  been  sold.  He  who 
marries  Elimelech's  daughter,  it  would  appear,  has 
a  right  to  redeem  the  land,  probably  by  repaying 
to  the  owner  the  purchase  money.^  We  really 
know  more  about  this  law  from  the  story  of  Ruth 
1  Deut.  XXV.  7-9. 


182      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

than  from  any  other  quarter;  but  apparently  be- 
fore he  can  legitimately  marry  her  and  redeem  the 
land  he  must  offer  the  privilege  to  a  nearer  kins- 
man. They  meet  with  the  elders  at  the  gate,  an 
informal  local  court.  Boaz  proposes  to  the  nearer 
kinsman  that  he  shall  redeem  the  land ;  the  kinsman 
says,  "  I  will."  But  Boaz  says,  "  If  you  redeem 
the  land,  you  must  take  Ruth."  "  Oh,  then,"  he 
says,  "I  won't."  So  Boaz  both  redeems  the  land 
and  takes  Ruth.  And  so  the  marriage  is  cele- 
brated. 

And  is  that  all  ?  Yes,  that  is  all.  Just  a  simple, 
beautiful,  idyllic  love  story  of  the  olden  time.^  I 
hardly  know  whether  to  try  to  play  the  part  of 
Greek  chorus  lest  I  spoil  the  story  by  pointing 
out  the  moral  —  the  strong,  uninterpreted  wit- 
ness against  race  prejudice ;  the  deep  fidelity  of  a 
woman's  heart  to  a  sorrowing  companion ;  the  spir- 
itual appreciation  of  a  higher  and  better  religion 
than  that  of  the  Moabite  country  from  which  she 
came ;  the  simple  peasant  life  on  the  fields  of  Beth- 

^  "  An  old  family  tradition,  religiously  kept  because  of  the 
fame  of  the  house  it  belonged  to,  told  and  retold  for  many  gen- 
erations, and  only  crystallized  and  written  down  at  last  after 
many  centuries  ;  there  is  in  brief  the  origin  of  the  Book  of  Ruth, 
now  newly  pictured  and  set  forth  for  our  later  day.  Wliatever 
the  date  when  it  was  actually  written,  it  still  preserved,  evidently, 
all  its  original  charm  and  oral  naturalness  and  simplicity  in  taking 
on  a  literary  form.  And  still  it  keeps  for  us  this  freshness,  in 
every  sympathetic  detail,  every  touch  of  emotion,  and  moves  us, 
after  all  these  centuries,  like  some  affecting  thing  of  yesterday,  — 
a  true  tale  truly  and  beautifully  told."  The  Book  of  Suth,  Intro- 
duction by  Ernest  Rhys,  p.  i. 


SO^fE   HEBREW   STORIES   RETOLD  183 

lehem ;  and,  best  of  all,  the  love  of  one  faithful 
man  to  one  faithful  woman.  We  look  back  along 
those  intervening  centuries  and  bless  God  that 
man's  love  for  woman  and  woman's  love  for  man  is 
as  old  as  humanity  and  as  immortal  as  God. 

The  fourth  type  of  fiction  in  the  Bible  is  Histori- 
cal Romance,  —  the  story  of  Queen  Esther,  a  drama 
in  four  acts :  the  scene  is  laid  in  Shushan,  the 
Persian  capital,  in  the  time  of  the  exile.^ 

In  the  first  act  we  see  Xerxes,  misnamed  the 
Great,  upon  his  throne,  —  a  small-minded,  self- 
willed,  capricious,  sensual  Oriental  despot ;  the 
Xerxes  who  in  his  campaign  against  Greece  be- 
headed the  engineers  who  built  his  bridge  of  boats 
across  the  Hellespont  because  the  bridge  was  de- 
stroyed by  a  storm,  and  then  ordered  the  sea  to  be 
scourged ;  the  Xerxes  who,  when  his  friend  Pythias 
had  given  five  sons  to  the  army,  and  asked  that  the 
eldest  might  be  suffered  to  remain  at  home,  killed 
the  son  and  cut  the  body  in  two,  that  the  army 

^  "  The  Hebrew  Ahasnerus  (or  Akhashverosh)  is  the  exact  cor- 
respondent of  the  Persian  Ehskayarsha,  which  the  Greeks  and 
Romans  rendered  by  Xerxes.  The  writer  assumes  that  more  than 
one  Ahasnerus  is  known  to  his  readers,  and  seeks  to  make  it  clear 
to  them  which  Ahasnerus  he  is  speaking'  of.  First,  he  notes  that 
the  subject  of  his  narrative  is  a  real  king-,  and,  therefore,  not  the 
Ahasnerus  of  Daniel  (ix.  1)  ;  secondly,  that  he  ruled  'from  India 
to  Ethiopia '  and,  therefore,  belonged  to  the  later  portion  of  the 
Persian  series,  since  it  was  well  known  that  the  earlier  Persian 
monarchs  were  not  masters  of  India.  He  thus  sets  aside  the 
Ahasnerus  of  Ezra  iv.  0  (Cambyses),  and  points  with  sufficient 
clearness  to  Xerxes,  the  son  of  Darius  Hystaspis."  The  Bible 
Commentary,  Esther,  p.  475. 


184      LIFE    AND    LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

miglit  pass  between  the  two  parts ;  the  Xerxes 
who,  with  the  first  disaster  that  came  to  his  army, 
fled,  like  the  coward  that  he  was,  back  to  his  em- 
pire again,  leaving  Mardonius  to  extricate  it  from 
the  toils  into  which  his  own  folly  had  led  it ;  the 
Xerxes  who,  leaving  the  affairs  of  state  in  stronger 
hands,  offered  a  premium  to  any  man  who  would 
discover  a  new  form  of  pleasure,  and  gave  himself 
up  to  weeks  of  feasting  and  revelry.  This  Xerxes, 
in  one  of  his  drunken  orgies,  calls  on  Vashti,  his 
queen,  to  come  into  the  presence  of  the  court  and 
exhibit  her  beauty  to  the  courtiers.  To  ask  a 
woman  to  come  into  such  a  presence  at  any  time 
would  be  to  insult  her ;  to  ask  her  to  come  unveiled 
into  such  a  company  in  ancient  Persia  was  to  offer 
too  gross  an  insult  to  be  endured.  With  womanly 
courage,  Vashti  refuses  to  go.  The  king  instantly 
deposes  her ;  but,  when  the  fumes  of  the  orgy  have 
passed  away,  awakes  to  regret  his  sudden  action, 
and  his  courtiers  awake  to  the  necessity  of  finding 
some  way  of  pacifying  his  anger,  or  it  would  turn 
against  them.  They  propose  to  send  out  courtiers, 
gather  all  the  beautiful  women  of  his  kingdom, 
select  the  handsomest,  and  put  her  in  Vashti's 
place.  The  scheme  approves  itself  to  this  volup- 
tuous, self-willed,  capricious  monarch.  A  Jew,  a 
Pharisee  of  the  strictest  sort,  is  an  attendant  in 
some  capacity  upon  this  court,  and  brings  his  niece, 
Hadassah  or  Esther,  to  compete  for  the  dangerous 
honor.  It  seems  strange  that  any  guardian  should 
offer  his  ward  for  a  place  in  the  harem  of  such  a 


SOME   HEBREW   STORIES   RETOLD  185 

king,  but  we  must  remember  that  honored  women 
sought  the  hand  of  Henry  VIII.,  though  they  took 
the  place  which  he  had  made  vacant  by  bloody 
decrees.  Mordecai  succeeds.  Esther  enters  the 
king's  harem  and  becomes  his  favorite.  So  the 
first  act  ends. 

In  the  second  act  Haman  appears  upon  the  scene, 
—  cold,  shrewd,  deliberate,  cunning,  the  villain  of 
the  drama.  He  has  climbed  his  way  to  the  side 
of  the  throne,  and  all  other  courtiers  bow  and  show 
him  honor:  all  but  one.  In  the  universal  adula- 
tion paid  to  Haman,  Mordecai  alone  remains  scorn- 
fully erect.  Race  animosity  inflames  the  personal 
hostility  between  these  two.  The  Jew  despises  the 
cunning  but  treacherous  Amalekite;  the  Amalekite 
hates  the  rigorous  virtue  and  inflexible  pride  of  the 
Jew.  It  is  the  Cavalier  against  the  Puritan ;  the 
Jesuit  against  the  Huguenot.  Haman  awaits  his 
time  and  nurses  his  wrath.  Patience  in  passion  is 
the  very  climax  of  wickedness.  To  such  patience 
Haman  attained.  Nor  is  it  enough  for  him  to  have 
personal  revenge  on  his  personal  enemy.  Hating 
the  Jew  with  all  the  concentrated  hate  for  an  alien 
race,  he  resolves  that  the  race  shall  pay  the  penalty 
for  the  slight  that  has  been  put  upon  him.  The 
Jews  were  then,  as  now,  a  thrifty  people.  Haman 
calculates  that  their  extermination  and  the  confis- 
cation of  their  estates  would  put  into  the  royal 
treasury  over  ten  million  dollars.  He  proposes  the 
scheme  to  Xei'xes,  is  so  confident  of  the  result  that 
he  is  willing  to  pay  the  sum  in  advance  out  of  his 


186      LIFE   AND    LITERATURE    OF    THE   HEBREWS 

own  coffers,  and  finds  a  readier  acceptance  of  his 
offer  from  the  king  because  the  royal  funds  are  ex- 
hausted by  excessive  luxury  and  dissipation.  With 
the  capriciousness  of  a  despot,  he  takes  from  his 
finger  the  seal  ring  which  serves  as  a  signature  and 
gives  it  to  Haman.  "Do  with  them,"  said  he,  "as 
it  seemeth  good  unto  thee."  The  decree  is  issued 
accordingly.  It  provides  for  the  extermination  of 
all  the  Jews  within  Xerxes's  dominion,  is  posted 
in  the  palace,  is  sent  out  by  courtiers  to  every 
province,  and  Haman  and  the  king  sit  down  to 
ratify  it  in  a  drinking  bout.  Mourning  is  not 
allowed  in  the  palace.  Letters  are  not  delivered 
in  the  harem  ;  newspapers  do  not  exist.  Esther 
knows  not  the  peril  that  threatens  her  j^eople  until 
she  sees  sackcloth  on  INIordecai,  and  sends  a  mes- 
senger to  bid  him  take  it  off.  So  communication 
is  opened  between  the  uncle  and  the  niece.  He 
sends  her  the  news,  and  calls  for  her  intervention. 
Perhaps  she  remembers  what  came  upon  Pythias 
when  he  offered  remonstrance ;  perhaps  she  remem- 
bers that  the  engineers  were  beheaded  because  the 
storm  broke  their  pontoon  bridge.  Sadly  she  re- 
calls to  herself  the  fact  that  she  is  no  longer  the 
king's  favorite.  "  For  thirty  days  I  have  not  been 
invited  to  meet  the  king,"  she  says  ;  "  and  I  can  do 
nothing."  Mordecai's  reply,  such  as  a  Cromwell 
might  have  given  to  his  daughter,  interprets  his 
strenuous  character.  "  Think  not  with  thj^self  that 
thou  shalt  escape  in  the  king's  house,  more  than  all 
the  Jews.    For  if  thou  altogether  boldest  thy  peace 


SO^fE   HEBREW   STORIES   RETOLD  187 

at  this  time,  then  shall  there  enlargement  and  de- 
liverance arise  to  the  Jews  from  another  place;  but 
thou  and  thy  father's  house  shall  be  destroyed ;  and 
who  knoweth  whether  thou  art  come  to  the  kino-- 
dom  for  such  a  time  as  this  ?  "  The  niece  yields 
to  the  strong  influence  of  her  adopted  father.  She 
resolves  to  make  the  effort,  though  with  but  little 
hope  of  its  success.  With  dignity  she  says,  "  If  I 
perish,  I  perish."  ^  So  the  second  act  ends,  with 
three  days  for  prayer  and  fasting  by  her  and  her 
maidens,  for  her  by  the  people  of  her  race. 

The  third  act  opens  in  the  king's  apartment. 
The  queen,  understanding  the  king's  weaknesses, 
has  prepared  a  banquet  of  wine  for  him.  She  has 
attired  herself  with  unusual  care,  making  the  most 
of  her  extraordinary  beauty.  Then  she  crosses 
the  threshold  of  the  harem,  traverses  the  hall  that 
separates  it  from  the  court  of  the  king's  house, 
pushes  her  way  through  the  throng  of  surprised 
courtiers  and  attendants,  and  stands  at  the  door  of 
the  throne-room,  waiting,  with  what  beating  heart 
we  may  guess,  the  signal  that  should  give  life  and 
hope  to  her  nation  or  decree  both  death  to  it 
and  to  her.  The  moment  is  ausj^icious.  The  king 
holds  ovit  his  sceptre  in  signal  of  favor.  She  draws 
near,  touches  it,  and  prefers  her  request.  Will  the 
king  honor  her  %\ath  his  presence  at  her  banquet  of 
wine,  and  will  he  bring  his  favorite  minister  Haman 
with  him  ?  The  invitation  is  accepted.  Tlie  king 
and  the  courtier  sit  down  at  the  banquet  of  wine. 
1  Esther  iv.  14,  16. 


188      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF    THE   HEBREWS 

Pressed  by  the  king  to  present  her  petition,  she 
holds  back  her  request  for  another  day.  "  What 
wilt  thou  have,"  asks  the  king  ;  "  it  is  granted,  and 
that  before  thou  askest  it."  "  Only  this,  my  lord," 
she  replies,  "that  you  and  Haman  will  come  to 
a  greater  feast  to-morrow ;  then  I  will  tell  you." 
His  curiosity  is  piqued,  his  interest  is  aroused. 
Perhaps  that  was  the  reason  why  that  night  he 
could  not  sleep,  and  sent  for  some  one  to  read  him 
the  court  records  to  put  him  to  sleep.  What  better 
nightcap,  as  Thackeray  calls  it,  than  court  records 
could  be  devised  ?  But  in  this  case  it  fails  of  its 
purpose,  for  in  these  records  the  king  finds  it  re- 
corded how  not  long  ago  two  men  had  devised  to 
assassinate  him,  and  one  Mordecai  had  discovered 
the  plot  and  saved  his  life.  "  W^hat  has  been  done 
for  this  Mordecai  ? "  he  asks  the  reader.  "  No- 
thing." "  Well,  something  must  be  done."  With 
that  he  falls  to  sleep.  Meanwhile  Haman,  elated  by 
the  honor  conferred  upon  him,  goes  home,  envied 
by  all  his  fellows  save  only  Mordecai,  who,  erect 
as  ever  and  meeting  the  fiery  glance  of  hate  that 
leaps  from  Haman's  eyes  with  scorn  invincible, 
adds  fresh  fuel  to  that  hate.  He  cannot  wait  for 
the  execution  of  the  general  decree  ;  he  will  ask  for 
Mordecai's  execution  to-morrow.  Before  he  goes 
to  his  bed  he  gives  orders  for  the  erection  of  the 
gallows.  So  the  third  act  ends,  Haman  preparing 
for  the  execution  of  Mordecai,  the  king  planning 
how  to  honor  him. 

The  fourth  act  opens   the  next  morning  with 


SOME  HEBREW  STORIES  RETOLD  189 

Haman  early  at  the  palace.  He  is  greeted  as  he 
enters  with  the  king's  question,  "  What  shall  the 
king  do  to  him  whom  he  delighteth  to  honor  ?  " 
Haman  thinks  to  himself,  Who  is  it  the  king  so 
delights  to  honor  as  myself  ?  So  he  prescribes  for 
himself  what  his  vanity  desires.  "  Put  him  on  the 
king's  horse,  put  the  king's  robe  ujion  him,  put 
the  king's  crown  on  his  head,  and  let  some  great 
prince  lead  the  horse  through  the  streets,  crying 
everywhere,  '  Thus  doth  the  king  to  him  whom  he 
delights  to  honor. '  "  "  Well  said,  wise  counselor," 
responds  the  king.  "  Who  is  so  great  a  prince  as 
yourself  ?  Put  Mordecai  on  my  horse,  and  lead 
him  through  the  streets,  proclaiming  to  all  the 
people  as  thou  hast  said."  There  is  no  room  for 
objection,  question,  hesitation,  or  delay.  With 
what  bitter  malice  at  his  heart  Haman  fulfills  this 
charge  we  are  left  to  imagine.  Then  he  goes 
home  and  tells  his  wife  and  friends.  His  obsequi- 
ous followers  drop  away  from  him  ;  even  his  wife 
warns  him  of  impending  disaster.  While  they 
are  talking  come  the  king's  chamberlains  to  hasten 
Haman  to  the  banquet  which  the  queen  has  pro- 
vided for  him.  Then  all  is  not  lost.  Still  he  has 
a  place  in  the  royal  favor,  and  to  the  queen's  ban- 
quet he  goes,  encouraging  his  heart  with  this  hope 
against  hope. 

So  the  last  scene  opens,  with  Haman,  the  king, 
and  the  queen  at  the  banquet  table  together. 
Again  the  king  repeats  his  question,  "  What  is 
thy  petition,  Queen  Esther,  and  it  shall  be  granted 


190     LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

thee  ?  and  what  is  thy  request,  and  it  shall  be  per- 
formed, to  lialf  of  the  kingdom  ?  "  Then  she  flings 
herself  at  his  feet,  with  all  the  pent-up  anguish 
of  her  woman's  heart :  "  My  lord  the  king,  let  my 
life  be  given  me  at  my  petition,  and  my  people  at 
my  request,  for  we  are  sold,  I  and  my  people,  to 
be  destroyed  utterly."  The  king,  who  has  forgot- 
ten his  careless  gift  of  the  Jewish  people,  the  ring, 
the  seal,  and  the  decree,  responds,  "  Who  has 
dared  to  do  this  ?  "  Then  with  flashing  eye  she 
turns  on  Haman.  "  The  adversary's  name  is  this 
wicked  Haman."  And  the  king  in  his  wrath  rises 
and  goes  out ;  and  Haman  flings  himself  on  her 
couch  to  implore  her  mercy ;  and  the  king  com- 
ing back  and  looking  on  him  there  cries,  "  Will 
he  insult  the  queen  in  my  very  presence !  "  and  the 
courtiers,  who  had  been  obsequious  to  Haman  in 
his  power,  come  in  rejoicing  in  his  fall,  to  hasten 
his  doom.  "  He  has  erected  just  outside  the  gate  a 
gallows  for  Mordecai,"  says  one  of  them.  "  Hang 
him  thereon,"  replies  the  king.  So  they  hang  Pla- 
mau  on  the  gallows  that  he  had  prepared  for 
Mordecai.  One  would  think  that  a  decree  should 
have  gone  out  for  the  protection  of  the  Jews. 
Whether  the  narrator  thought  it  more  dramatic  to 
give  a  different  ending,  or  whether  it  was  really 
true  that  a  decree  once  issued  could  not  be  re- 
called, I  will  not  attempt  to  determine  ;  but,  ac- 
cording to  the  story,  a  new  decree  is  issued  that 
the  Jews  may  defend  themselves  against  their  ene- 
mies, and  in  the  battles  that  ensued  seventy-five 


SOME  HEBREW  STORIES  RETOLD  191 

thousand  of  the  enemies  of  the  Jews  are  slain  ;  and 
so  the  story  ends. 

One  has,  it  seems  to  me,  but  to  read  this  story 
to  feel  the  life  of  a  romance  in  it.^  The  contrasted 
characters  —  the  sensual  monarch,  the  unscrupu- 
lous minister,  the  proud  Puritan,  the  brave  woman, 
brave  with  true  womanly  courage  —  are  drawn  in 
few  lines,  but  with  marvelous  skill.  The  plot,  with 
its  play  of  character  against  character,  its  rapidity 
of  movement,  its  dramatic  incident,  its  plotting 
and  counter-plotting,  shows  the  highest  constructive 
skill ;  and  the  moral  inspiration  of  the  story,  incit- 
ing to  hate  of  the  sensuality  of  Xerxes  and  the 
crafty  malice  of  Ilaman,  to  admiration  for  the 
courage  of  Mordecai,  and  a  love  that  is  more  than 
admiration  for  the  womanly  bearing  of  the  queen, 
is  all  the  greater  because  the  narrator  does  not 
formulate  it ;  and  the  story  is  all  the  more  reli- 
gious in  its  spirit  because  it  is  so  wholly  free  from 
the  phraseology  of  religion  in  its  language.^ 

He  who  regards  the  Book  of  Esther  as  scien- 
tific history  must  explain  as  best  he  can  how  the 

^  This  aspect  of  the  book  is  recog^nized  by  commentators,  who 
treat  it  rather  as  history  than  as  fiction,  e.  jr.,  J.  W.  Haley  :  "  ISIuch 
of  the  fascination  of  the  book  is  dne  to  the  skillful  arrangement 
of  parts.  There  is  all  the  effect  which  we  are  accustomed  to  as- 
cribe to  the  elaborate  weaving  of  a  plot  in  drama,  or  in  a  work  of 
fiction,  and  we  find  a  well  devised  denouement.  Every  thread  and 
fibre  is  wrought  into  its  place  in  the  fabric,  and  there  is  nothing 
irrelevant."  The  Booh  of  Esther.  A  New  Translation  Avith  Notes, 
etc.,  by  John  W.  Haley,  M.  A. 

2  It  is  the  only  book  in  the  Bible  in  which  the  name  of  God 
does  not  appear. 


192     LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

historian  obtained  his  knowledge  of  the  facts  in 
the  minute  detail  with  which  he  records  them.  Who 
was  present  to  hear  the  conference  between  Haman 
and  Ahasuerus ;  the  colloquy  between  the  king  and 
the  queen  in  the  first  banquet ;  the  conversation 
between  Haman  and  his  wife  ;  the  question  of  the 
king  to  the  king's  chamberlains  ;  the  conversation 
between  Haman  and  the  king ;  and  the  plea  of 
Esther  for  the  life  of  herself  and  her  people?^  It 
is  very  probable,  indeed  almost  certain,  that  the 
story  has  an  historical  basis,  but  it  is  equally  certain 
from  the  very  structure  of  the  narrative  itself  that 
the  story  has  been  told  with  the  freedom  of  the 
romancer,  who  was  using  the  material  for  literary 
and  moral  effect,  not  for  a  scientific  purpose. 

A  fifth  type  of  fiction,  Satirical  Romance,  is 
afforded  by  the  Book  of  Jonah.  Of  this  book 
there  are  three  interpretations  :  first,  that  it  is  his- 
tory, and  all  the  events  took  place  exactly  as  nar- 
rated ;  secondly,  that  it  is  allegory,  that  Jonah 
represents  the  Jewish  people,  the  fish  the  heathen 
lands,  the  capture  of  Jonah  by  the  fish  the  cap- 
tivity, the  vomiting  of  Jonah  out  upon  the  land 
again  the  return  from  captivity ;  third,  that  it  is  a 
satirical  romance,  written  for  the  purpose  of  satiriz- 
ing the  narrowness  of  the  Jewish  religion,  and 
teaching  the  wideness  of  God's  love.^     This  latter 

1  Est.  iii.  8-11 ;  V.  6-8,  14;  vi.  3,  7-10;  vii.  3-6. 

^  For  the  first  or  historical  view,  which  is  the  more  ancient  and 
traditional,  the  student  is  referred  to  Dr.  William  Smith's  Bible 
Dictionary^  article  Jonah,  especially  to  the   supplemental  article 


SOME   HEBREW   STORIES   RETOLD  193 

I  believe  to  be  the  true  interpretation,  and  the  one 
which  I  assume  to  be  true  in  telling  and  interpret- 
by  Dr.  Calvin  E.  Stowe  ;  to  the  Introduction  to  the  Book  of 
Jonah  in  the  Commentary  on  the  Minor  Prophets,  by  Dr.  E.  B. 
Pusey  ;  and  to  the  Preface  to  the  Book  of  Jonah  in  the  Commen- 
tary on  the  Minor  Prophets,  by  Dr.  E.  Henderson  ;  and  to  a  mono- 
graph in  pamphlet,  Light  on  the  Story  of  Jonah,  by  Dr.  Henry 
Clay  Trumbull,  1894.  This  view,  however,  it  must  be  recognized, 
has  been  questioned  from  the  very  earliest  ages  ;  thus  Josephus 
prefaces  and  closes  his  account  of  the  strange  experiences  of  the 
prophet  in  a  way  clearly  to  indicate  his  doubt  of  its  historicity : 
"  I  cannot,"  he  says,  "  but  think  it  necessary  for  me,  who  have 
promised  to  give  an  accurate  account  of  our  affairs,  to  describe 
the  actions  of  this  prophet  so  far  as  I  have  found  them  written 
down  in  the  Hebrew  books."  Antiquities  of  the  Jews,  book  ix., 
chapter  x.,  §  2.  For  the  second  or  parabolic  view  the  reader  is 
referred  to  The  Book  of  the  Twelve  Projjhets,  by  George  Adam 
Smith,  D.  D.  "Nor  does  this  book,"  he  says,  "  written  so  many 
centuries  after  Jonah  had  passed  away,  claim  to  be  real  history.  On 
the  contrary,  it  offers  to  us  all  the  marks  of  the  parable  or  allegory." 
After  indicating  what  these  marks  are,  he  adds,  "  The  purpose  of 
the  parable,  and  it  is  patent  from  first  to  last,  is  to  illustrate  the 
mission  of  prophecy  to  the  Gentiles,  God's  care  for  them,  and  their 
susceptibility  to  his  word.  More  correctly,  it  is  to  enforce  all 
this  truth  upon  a  prejudiced  and  thrice  reluctant  mind.  .  .  . 
The  writer  had  in  view,  not  a  Jewish  party  but  Israel  as  a  whole 
in  their  national  reluctance  to  fulfill  their  Divine  mission  to  tlie 
world.  ...  Of  such  a  people  Jonah  is  the  type.  Like  them  ho 
flees  from  the  duty  God  has  laid  upon  him.  Like  them  he  is 
beyond  his  own  land,  cast  for  a  set  period  into  a  living  death,  and 
like  them  rescued  again  only  to  exhibit  once  more  upon  his  return 
an  ill-will  to  believe  that  God  had  any  fate  for  the  heathen  except 
destruction.  According  to  this  theory,  then,  Jonah's  disappear- 
ance in  the  sea  and  the  great  fish,  and  his  subsequent  ejection 
upon  dry  land,  symbolize  the  Exile  of  Israel  and  their  restoration 
to  Palestine."  Pp.  498,  501,  502,  503.  The  third  view,  which 
regards  the  book  as  a  romance,  with  a  moral  meaning,  the  view 
which  differs  in  detail  rather  than  in  essence  from  the  second,  is 
thus  stated  by  Ewald :  "  This  much  is  apparent  from  the  style  and 


194    LIFE   AND    LITERATURE    OF    THE    HEBREWS 

ing  the  story  here.  Of  the  correctness  of  the 
interpretation  the  reader  must  form  his  own  judg- 
ment on  its  bare  presentation,  without  argument 
or  defense. 

In  the  outset,  however,  we  are  confronted  by  the 
claim  that  Jesus  Christ  has  solved  this  question  for 
us  by  his  reference  to  the  Book  of  Jonah.  There 
are  two  accounts  of  this  reference,  one  in  Luke, 
one  in  Matthew.     They  are  as  follows  :  — 

Matthew  xii.  39,  40,  41.  Luke  xi.  29,  30,  32. 

But  he  answered  and  said  And  when  the  people  were 
unto  them,  An  evil  and  adulter-  gathered  thick  together,  he  he- 
character  of  the  little  book  which  now  perpetuates  the  prophet's 
name,  from  the  failing  end  of  the  story,  and  (which  is  the  most 
decisive  thing)  from  the  true  meaning  of  the  whole  book,  namely, 
that  the  author  beheld  in  the  legendary  material  which  was  ready 
to  his  hand  simply  a  given  medium  for  presenting  in  an  attractive 
form  a  prophetic  truth  which  lived  in  his  own  heart."  He  com- 
pares the  story  of  the  prophet's  adventure  to  the  stories  in  the 
Arabian  Nights'  Entertainments,  a  common  form  of  Oriental  fic- 
tion, and  implies  that  it  is  analogous  to  them  in  its  literary  form, 
but  differs  from  them  in  its  moral  significance.  "  The  course 
of  ancient  Hebrew  literature,"  he  says, '' is  distinguished  from 
that  of  the  other  ancient  literatures,  not  as  regards  its  form,  but 
only  as  regards  its  subject-matter  and  its  higher  prophetic  ten- 
dencies." Commentary  on  the  Prophets  of  the  Old  Testament,  by 
Dr.  Georg  H.  A.  von  Ewald,  vol.  v.  pp.  90,  92.  Analogous  to 
Dr.  Ewald's  interpretation  is  that  of  Dr.  Caverno,  who  says  : 
"  Whoever  wrote  Jonah  meant  satire  on  the  prophets  as  Lowell 
meant  satire  on  the  politicians  of  the  day  of  the  Biglow  Papers, 
only  the  strokes  in  Jonah  are  of  lighter  touch  than  even  those  of 
Lowell."  A  Narrow  Ax  in  Biblical  Criticism,  by  Rev.  Charles 
Caverno,  A.  M.,  LL.  D.,  p.  82.  For  a  careful  study  of  the  Book 
of  Jonah,  and  a  careful  consideration  of  its  various  aspects,  see 
Jonah  in  Fact  and  Fancy,  by  the  Kev.  Edgar  James  Banks, 
M.  A.,  Ph.  D. 


SO.\fE   HEBREW   STORIES   RETOLD  195 

ous  generation  seeketh  after  a  gan  to  say,  This  is  an  evil  gen- 
sign  ;  and  there  shall  no  sign  be  eration  :  they  seek  a  sign  ;  and 
given  to  it,  but  the  sign  of  the  there  shall  no  sign  be  given  it, 
prophet  Jonas :  For  as  Jonas  but  the  sign  of  Jonas  tlie  pro- 
was  three  days  and  three  nights  phet.  For  as  Jonas  was  a  sign 
in  the  whale's  belly ;  so  shall  unto  the  Ninevites,  so  shall  also 
the  Son  of  man  be  three  days  the  Son  of  man  be  to  this  gen- 
and  three  nights  in  the  heart  of  eration.  The  men  of  Nineveh 
the  earth.  The  men  of  Nineveh  shall  rise  up  in  the  judgment 
shall  rise  in  judgment  with  this  with  this  generation,  and  shall 
generation,  and  shall  condemn  condemn  it :  for  they  repented 
it :  because  they  repented  at  the  at  the  preaching  of  Jonas  ;  and, 
preaching  of  Jonas ;  and,  behold,  behold,  a  greater  than  Jonas  is 
a  greater  than  Jonas  is  here.  here. 

The  reference  to  Jonah  as  being  three  days  and 
three  nights  in  the  fish's  belly  is  given  only  by 
Matthew,  not  by  Luke.  There  are  two  reasons 
why  the  modern  critic  does  not  regard  this  as  evi- 
dence that  the  Book  of  Jonah  is  history.  In  the 
first  place,  even  if  Christ  used  the  words  reported 
by  Matthew,  such  use  does  not  indicate  that  the 
book  is  historical.  If  a  modern  speaker,  addressing 
an  American  audience,  were  to  say,  "  As  Ulysses 
sailed  between  Scylla  and  Charybdis,"  this  would 
not  indicate  that  he  believed  the  story  of  Scylla 
and  Chai'ybdis  to  be  historical.  Incidental  refer- 
ence to  an  ancient  story  does  not  indicate  that  the 
person  who  makes  the  reference  vouches  for  its 
historical  chai'acter.  But,  in  the  second  place,  the 
modern  critic  does  not  believe  that  Christ  ever 
used  the  words,  "  As  Jonah  was  three  days  and 
three  nights  in  the  whale's  belly  ;  so  shall  the  Son 
of  man  be  three  days  and  three  nights  in  the  heart 


196   LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

of  the  earth."  He  thinks  that  these  words  are  in- 
terpolated in  Matthew's  account,  and  do  not  belong 
with  the  words  that  Christ  is  uttering.  The  Phari- 
sees demanded  a  sign.  Christ  declares  that  they 
shall  have  no  other  sign  than  that  of  the  prophet 
Jonah.  Does  he  mean  no  other  sign  than  the  re- 
surrection—  that  is,  the  greatest  of  all  signs?  No. 
What  he  means  is,  the  people  of  Nineveh  had  no 
miracle,  for  there  is  nothing  to  indicate  that  they 
ever  heard  of  Jonah's  strange  adventure ;  they  re- 
pented at  the  mere  preaching  of  Jonah,  and  Christ 
says  that  his  generation  has  had  the  preaching  of 
one  greater  than  Jonah.  Mr.  Moulton,  in  his 
"  Bible  for  English  Readers,"  has  indicated  the 
true  place  of  this  phrase  in  Matthew,  by  putting  it 
in  his  edition  of  the  gospel  in  a  footnote.  The 
modern  critic  believes  that  this  phrase  was  added 
by  an  early  scribe,  or  possibly  by  Matthew  himself, 
as  his  interpretation  of  Jesus'  words ;  the  reader 
must  remember  that  in  those  days  there  was  no  way 
to  add  such  an  interpretation  other  than  by  incor- 
porating it  in  the  text.  That  this  was  not  Jesus' 
meaning  is  further  indicated  by  the  fact  that  the 
parallel  is  not  a  true  one.  Jesus  was  not  three 
days  and  three  nights  in  the  heart  of  the  earth. 
He  was  buried  on  Friday ;  he  rose  from  the  tomb 
on  Sunday :  he  was  in  the  earth  one  day  and  two 
nights.  Whether  the  story  is  history  or  fiction  is 
not  determined,  therefore,  by  this  reference  to  it  in 
the  Gospels.  It  is  to  be  determined  by  the  struc- 
ture of  the  story  itself.     What  is  the  story  ? 


SOME  HEBREW  STORIES   RETOLD  197 

A  prophet  is  called  upon  by  God  to  preach  to  a 
pagan  city.  He  refuses.  He  does  not  believe  in 
the  heathen  ;  he  does  not  care  for  the  heathen  ;  he 
does  not  think  religion  is  intended  for  the  heathen  ; 
he  refuses  to  accept  the  commission.  He  attempts 
to  fly  from  Jehovah  by  fleeing  from  the  province 
of  Palestine,  over  which  alone,  according  to  his 
narrow  conception,  Jehovah  has  jurisdiction  ;  gets 
into  a  ship  going  to  Tarshish,  and  as  soon  as  the 
ship  is  fairly  out  to  sea  goes  to  bed  and  goes  to 
sleep,  thinking  himself  safe.  But  Jehovah  is  God  of 
the  sea  as  well  as  of  the  land ;  he  sends  out  a  great 
wind  into  the  sea ;  the  prophet  is  presently  awak- 
ened and  summoned  to  the  deck,  and  there  is  called 
on  to  join  with  the  worshipers  of  other  gods  in  a 
prayer-meeting  in  which  each  one  invokes  his  own 
god  for  protection.  So  he  learns  his  first  lesson, 
that  those  whom  he  thought  pariahs  and  outcasts 
have  also  some  faith  in  the  divine.  The  storm 
continues ;  the  sailors  cast  lots  to  ascertain  who  is 
culpable  ;  the  lot  falls  upon  the  prophet ;  he  tells 
his  tale  and  bids  them  cast  him  into  the  sea.  This 
they  are  unwilling  to  do,  and,  ceasing  their  prayers 
to  their  various  gods,  they  row  hard  to  bring  the 
boat  to  land,  but  all  in  vain.  Thus  he  learns  his 
second  lesson :  the  heathen  whom  he  thought  pari- 
ahs and  outcasts,  for  whom  he  cared  nothing,  are 
humane  and  care  for  him.  At  last  they  throw  him 
overboard,  yielding  to  his  entreaty  and  compelled 
by  the  peril  which  threatens  to  engulf  them  all. 
The  storm  ceases,  and  a  great  fish  which  Jehovah 


198     LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   TUE   HEBREWS 

has  prepared  swallows  up  the  prophet.^  In  the 
belly  of  the  fish  he  proceeds  to  compose  a  poem, 
which,  when  we  study  it,  we  find  is  made  up  of 
reminiscences  of  an  ancient  psalm.^  Then  Jehovah 
speaks  to  the  great  fish,  and  the  great  fish  hears 
and  obeys  and  vomits  the  prophet  out  upon  the  dry 
land. 

One  would  have  thought  that  this  would  have 
been  enough  to  take  the  narrowness  out  of  the  pro- 
phet, but  it  did  not.  It  is  difficult  to  get  narrow- 
ness out  of  a  narrow  ecclesiastic.  Jehovah  aaain 
directs  him  to  go  to  Nineveh,  and  he  goes,  though 
with  unmistakable  reluctance.  So  great  is  the  city 
that  it  takes  three  days  to  walk  from  one  gate  to 
the  other  through  the  centre.  He  enters  the  city 
and  begins  his  mission.  He  has  gone  but  one  day's 
journey,  that  is,  one-third  way  through  the  city, 
when  the  whole  people  of  the  city  accept  the  mes- 
sage, proclaim  a  fast,  put  on  sackcloth  from  the 
greatest  even  to  the  least  of  them,  and  are  com- 
manded by  the  king  to  turn  every  one  from  his  evil 
way  in  hope  that  God  will  repent  and  turn  from  the 
fierceness  of  his  anger.  So  great  a  result  from  a 
single  day's  preaching  was  never  heard  of  before 
or  since  in  the  history  of  the  race.  What  is  very 
curious,  the  history  of  Israel  gives  no  record  of  any 

^  There  is  no  reason  to  call  it  a  whale ;  it  is  not  called  whale 
either  in  the  Old  or  the  New  Testament ;  the  word  in  the  New 
Testament  rendered  whale  simply  means  great  fish.  According 
to  the  narrative,  Jehovah  prepares  a  special  fish  to  swallow  him, 
and  the  fish  does  what  it  has  been  made  to  do. 

^  Psalm  Ixxxviii.  5-8. 


SOME  HEBREW  STORIES  RETOLD  199 

such  revival  among  the  Ninevites,  and  the  history 
of  Nineveh  contains  no  suggestion  of  it.  God  ac- 
cepts the  penitence  of  the  city,  repents  him  of  the 
evil  that  he  had  said  that  he  would  do,  and  does  it 
not,  and  the  prophet  is  rejoiced  ?  No  !  He  is  very 
angry ;  he  expostulates.  "  Was  not  this,"  he  says 
to  Jehovah,  "  my  saying  when  I  was  in  my  own 
country?  That  was  the  reason  I  fled  beforehand 
into  Tarshish,  because  I  knew  that  thou  art  a  God 
gracious  and  merciful,  slow  to  anger  and  of  great 
kindness,  and  repentest  thou  of  the  evil."^  I  knew 
—  that  is,  this  is  the  effect  of  his  expostulation  — 
that  if  I  came  here  and  preached,  God  would  not 
do  what  I  told  them  He  would  do,  and  I  should  be 
left  in  the  position  of  a  false  prophet.  So  he  goes 
out  from  the  city,  builds  him  a  little  hut,  and  sits 
down  there  to  see  what  will  happen.  God  prepares 
a  gourd  that  serves  him  as  a  shield  from  the  sun, 
and  Jonah  is  glad  because  of  the  gourd.  Then 
God  prepares  a  worm  to  smite  the  gourd,  and  it 
withers,  and  God  prepares  a  vehement  east  wind 
and  a  hot  sun  to  beat  upon  the  head  of  Jonah, 
and  in  his  misery  he  wishes  for  death.  Then  God 
expostulates  :  "  Dost  thou  well  to  be  angry  for  the 
gourd?  "  and  the  sulky  prophet  replies,  "I  do  well 
to  be  angry."  Jehovah  patiently  continues  his  ex- 
postulations :  "  Thou  hast  had  pity  on  the  gourd, 
for  the  which  thou  hast  not  labored,  and  should  not 
I  have  pity  on  Nineveh,  wherein  are  more  than  six- 
score  thousand  persons  that  cannot  discern  between 

^  Jonah  iv.  2. 


200     LIFE   AND   LFTERATURE    OF   TUE   HEBREWS 

their  left  band  and  their  right  hand,  and  also  much 
cattle  ?  "  ^  But  he  gets  no  answer.  And  so  the 
story  ends  —  Jonah  left  sulky  and  cross  like  a 
petulant  child  in  the  hot  sun  outside  the  walls  of 
Nineveh,  angry  because  God  is  merciful.  The 
meaning  of  the  story  seems  to  me  to  be  writ  in 
large  and  luminous  characters :  "  There  is  a  wide- 
ness  in  God's  mercy  like  the  wideness  of  the  sea." 
When,  from  that  splendid  truth,  brought  out  more 
clearly  in  the  story  of  Jonah  than  in  any  other 
book  of  the  Old  Testament,  we  turn  aside  to  dis- 
cuss the  question  whether  a  whale  has  a  throat  big 
enough  for  a  man  to  pass  through,  we  are  abandon- 
ing the  great  lesson  which  God  meant  to  teach 
through  our  imagination  to  debate  a  physiological 
fact  of  absolutely  no  consequence. 
1  Jonah  iv.  9-11. 


CHAPTER  IX 

A  DRAMA    OF   LOVE  ^ 

Literature  is  an  interpretation  of  life.     The 
interpreter  may  expound  in  a  philosophical  manner 

^  There  are  three  conceptions  of  the  Song  of  Songs ;  the  first 
regards  it  as  an  allegory  of  the  spiritual  union  between  the  soul 
and  God  or  between  Christ  and  his  Church.  This  mystical  view 
finds,  perhaps,  its  best  interpreter  in  Mme.  Guyon.  One  or  two 
quotations  from  her  will  serve  to  illustrate  the  spirit  of  this 
method  of  interpretation :  "  Chapter  i.  verse  1,  '  Let  him  kiss  me 
with  the  kisses  of  his  mouth.''  This  kiss,  which  the  soul  desires  of 
its  God,  is  essential  union,  or  a  real,  permanent,  and  lasting  pos- 
session of  its  divine  object.  It  is  the  spiritual  marriage."  .  .  . 
"  Verse  4,  '  /  am  black  but  comely,  O  ye  daughters  of  Jerusalem,  as 
the  tents  of  Kedar,  as  the  curtains  of  Solomon.^  .  .  .  What  is  this 
thy  blackness,  0  thou  incomparable  maiden  ?  (we  say  to  her)  tell 
us,  we  pray  thee.  I  am  black,  she  says,  because  I  perceive  by  the 
light  of  my  divine  Sun,  hosts  of  defects,  of  which  I  was  never 
aware  until  now  ;  I  am  black,  because  I  am  not  yet  cleansed  from 
self.  .  .  .  Verse  7,  '  /  charge  you,  O  ye  daughters  of  Jerusalem,  by 
the  roes  and  by  the  hinds  of  the  field,  that  ye  stir  not  up,  nor  awake 
my  love  till  she  please.^  The  soul  is  in  a  mystic  slumber  in  this  em- 
brace of  betrothal,  in  which  she  enjoys  a  sacred  rest  she  had  never 
before  experienced.  .  .  .  The  daughters  of  Jerusalem  are  loving  and 
meddlesome  souls,  who  are  anxious  to  wake  her,  though  under 
the  most  specious  pretexts ;  but  she  is  so  soundly  asleep  that  she 
cannot  be  aroused.  .  .  .  Verse  9,  ^  King  Solomon  made  himself  a 
chariot  of  the  wood  of  Lebanon.'  The  Son  of  God,  the  King  of 
Glory,  made  himself  a  chariot  of  his  Humanity,  to  which  he  be- 
came united  in  the  Incarnation,  intending  to  be  seated  upon  it  to 
all  eternity,  and  to  make  of  it  a  triumphal  car,  upon  which  he  will 


202     LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

the  laws  of  life,  illustrating  them  more  or  less  by- 
pictures  produced  by  his  imagination  or  by  inci- 

ride  with  pomp  and  splendor  in  the  sight  of  all  his  creatures."  The 
Song  of  Songs  of  Solomon,  with  Explanations  and  Refleclions  hav- 
ing Reference  to  the  Interior  Life,  by  Madame  Guyon,  pp.  23,  33,  51, 
66.  —  The  second  view  regards  the  book  as  a  coUection  of  love 
songs  exchanged  between  two  lovers,  Solomon  and  the  Shulamite 
maiden ;  or  even  a  collection  of  entirely  independent  songs,  the 
only  unity  being  their  common  theme.  Love.  It  has  even  been 
suggested  that  the  poem  was  written  to  celebrate  the  nuptials 
between  Solomon  and  the  daughter  of  Pharaoh.  This,  which  is 
the  traditional  view,  is  adopted  by  Hengstenberg,  Delitzsch,  Keil, 
Kingsbury,  and  Professor  Moulton.  The  English  reader  wiU 
most  readUy  find  it  and  the  arguments  in  support  of  it  in  The 
Jiible  Commentary,  and  in  the  Modern  Eeader''s  Bible.  In  the 
latter  this  view  is  thus  stated  by  Professor  Moulton :  ' '  King 
Solomon  vnth  a  courtly  retinue,  visiting  the  royal  vineyards  upon 
Mount  Lebanon,  comes  by  surprise  upon  the  fair  Shulamite.  She 
flies  from  them.  Solomon  visits  her  in  the  disguise  of  a  shepherd, 
and  so  wins  her  love.  He  then  comes  in  all  his  royal  state,  and 
calls  upon  her  to  leave  Lebanon  and  become  his  queen.  They 
are  in  the  act  of  being  wedded  in  the  royal  palace  when  the  poem 
opens.  This,  which  is  the  story  as  a  whole,  is  brought  out  for  us 
in  seven  idyls,  each  independent,  all  founded  on  the  one  story,  but 
making  their  reference  to  different  parts  of  it  as  these  occur  to 
the  minds  of  the  speakers,  without  the  limitation  to  order  of  suc- 
cession that  would  be  implied  in  dramatic  presentation."  Modern 
Reader^ s  Bible,  Biblical  Idyls,  Intro,  p.  xi.  —  The  third  view,  the 
one  adopted  in  this  chapter,  regards  the  book  as  a  drama  in  which 
there  are  three  principal  characters :  Solomon,  the  Shulamite 
maiden,  and  her  shepherd  lover.  This  view  is  thus  summarized 
by  Dr.  Driver :  "  A  beautiful  Shulamite  maiden,  surprised  by  the 
king  and  his  train  on  a  royal  progress  in  the  north  (vi.  11, 12), 
has  been  brought  to  the  palace  at  Jerusalem  (i.  4,  etc.),  where 
the  king  hopes  to  win  her  affections,  and  to  induce  her  to  exchange 
her  rustic  home  for  the  honor  and  enjoyments  which  a  court  life 
could  afford.  She  has,  however,  already  pledged  her  heart  to  a 
young  shepherd,  and  the  admiration  and  blandishments  which 


A   DRAMA    OF  LOVE  203 

dents  from  history  or  from  other  authors  ;  he  may 
portray  life  in  action  and  accompany  the  portrayal 
with  some  description  and  interpretation ;  he  may 
simply  create  the  characters  and  place  them  in  the 
situations  which  he  has  invented  for  them,  and 
leave  them  to  interpret  themselves  by  their  speech 
and  their  actions.  The  first  form  of  literature  is 
Essay,  the  second  is  Novel,  the  third  is  Drama. 
Emerson  elucidates  the  nature  of  heroism  thus : 
"  Self-trust  is  the  essence  of  heroism.     It  is  the 

the  king  lavishes  upon  her  are  powerless  to  make  her  forget  him. 
In  the  end  she  is  permitted  to  return  to  her  mouQtaiu  home, 
•where,  at  the  close  of  the  poem,  the  lovers  appear  hand  in  hand 
(viii.  5),  and  express,  in  warm  and  glowing  words,  the  superiority 
of  genuine,  spontaneous  affection  over  that  which  may  he  pur- 
chased hy  wealth  or  rank  (viii.  6,  7)."  An  Introduction  to  the 
Literature  of  the  Old  Testament,  6th  edition,  hy  S.  R.  Driver,  D.  D., 
pp.  437,  43S.  I  agree  with  Dr.  Driver  that  an  attentive  study  of 
the  poem  can  leave  little  doubt  that  the  modern  view  {i.  e.,  the 
dramatic)  is  decidedly  more  probable  than  the  traditional  view 
{i.  e.,  the  lyrical).  For  the  reasons  which  lead  to  this  conclusion, 
except  as  they  are  apparent  in  the  dramatic  version  of  the  Song 
here  given,  the  reader  is  referred  to  Dr.  Driver's  Introduction ; 
and  for  a  fuller  explanation  of  this  dramatic  renderinor  of  the 
book  he  is  recommended  to  consult  The  Lili/  Among  Thorns,  by 
William  Elliot  Griflfis,  D.  D.,  to  whom  I  gladly  acknowledge  my 
indebtedness  in  the  preparation  of  this  chapter.  A  special  trans- 
lation and  dramatic  arrangement  can  be  found  in  the  interesting 
monograph  on  the  Song  of  Songs,  by  the  Rev.  William  C.  Daland 
(Leonardsville,  N.  Y.).  They  both  follow  the  previous  work  along 
the  same  line  by  Ewald,  whose  analysis  of  the  poem  is  given  by 
Driver  in  his  Introduction  to  the  Literature  of  the  Old  Testament. 
It  may  be  added  that  the  date  and  authorship  of  the  Song  of 
Songs  are  both  uncertain  ;  it  is  quite  clear  that  Solomon  is  not  the 
author ;  "  The  Song  of  Solomon  "  must  be  taken  to  mean  a  Song 
about  Solomon,  not  a  song  by  him. 


204     LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

state  of  the  soul  at  war,  and  its  ultimate  objects 
are  the  last  defiance  of  falsehood  and  wrong,  and 
tlie  power  to  bear  all  that  can  be  inflicted  by  evil 
agents."  ^  Thackeray,  in  "  The  Newcomes,"  gives 
us  no  definition  of  heroism,  but  in  Colonel  Newcome 
he  paints  the  picture  of  a  hero.  We  see,  however, 
not  only  the  portrait,  but  the  artist  at  his  work 
painting  it.  We  know  what  he  thinks  of  his  sitter, 
for  he  tells  us  very  frankly :  "  With  that  fidelity 
which  was  an  instinct  of  his  nature,  this  brave  man 
thought  ever  of  his  absent  child  and  longed  after 
him.  He  never  forsook  the  native  servants  and 
nurses  who  had  charge  of  the  child,  but  endowed 
them  with  money  sufficient  (and  little  was  wanted 
by  the  people  of  that  frugal  race)  to  make  all 
their  future  lives  comfortable.  No  friends  went 
to  Europe,  no  ship  departed,  but  Newcome  sent 
presents  and  remembrances  to  the  boy  and  thanks 
to  all  who  were  kind  to  his  son."  ^  Here  the  hero 
is  seen,  but  seen  through  the  eyes  of  the  artist 
who  is  painting  his  hero's  portrait.  In  "  Clive  " 
Browning  portrays  a  hero,  but  says  no  word  of 
eulogy  or  criticism.  He  simply  bids  j^ou  look  and 
see  Olive's  deed;  summons  you,  as  a  bystander 
might,  to  the  door  of  the  club-room  to  see  the 
scene :  — 

"  Twice  the  muzzle  touched  my  forehead.     Heavy  barrel,  flurried 
wrist, 

^  Essays,  by  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  Heroism. 
^  The  Newcomes,  chap.  v. 


A   DRAMA    OF  LOVE  205 

Either  spoils  a   steady  lifting.      Thrice:    then,  'Laugh  at  Hell 

who  list, 
I  can't !     God 's  no  fable  either.     Did  this  boy's  eye  ■wink  once  ? 

No! 
There 's  no  standing  him  and  Hell  and  God,  all  three  against  me 

—  so 
I  did  cheat !  ' 

And  down  he  threw  the  pistol."  ^ 

In  the  Essay  the  principle  is  elucidated  ;  in  the 
Novel  it  is  illustrated ;  in  the  Drama  it  is  simply 
portrayed.  In  the  Essay  the  author  interprets  ;  in 
the  Novel  he  portrays  and  interprets  ;  in  the  Drama 
his  portrayal  is  left  to  be  self-interpretative.  This 
self-interpretative  nature  of  the  drama  is  one  of 
the  characteristics  which  fit  it  for  presentation  on 
the  stage,  but  by  no  means  the  only  one.  The 
drama  may  be  a  story  so  constructed  that  it  can 
be  told  "  by  actual  representation  of  persons  by 
persons,  with  imitation  of  language,  voice,  gesture, 
dress,  and  accessories  or  surrounding  conditions  ;  "  ^ 
but  this  is  by  no  means  essential.  Browning's 
"  Ring  and  the  Book,"  which  could  by  no  possi- 
bility be  acted  on  the  stage,  is  as  truly  a  drama 
as  is  "  Hamlet "  or  "  Faust."  The  real  distinction 
between  the  dramatic  and  the  epic  poem  is  well 
defined  by  Boucicault :  "  In  the  epic  poem  there  is 
only  one  speaker  —  the  poet  himself.  The  action 
is  bygone.  The  scene  is  described.  The  persons 
are  spoken  of  as  third  persons.     There  are  only 

1  Dramatic  Idylls,  "  Clive,"  Browning's  Works,  Riverside  Edi- 
tion, vol.  vi.  p.  160. 

2  Century  Dictionary. 


c 


206     LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

two  concerned  in  it,  the  poet  and  the  reader.  In 
the  jrama  the  action  is  present,  the  scene  is  visi- 
ble, the  persons  are  speakers,  the  sentiments  and 
passions  are  theirs."  ^ 

It  is  in  this  sense  that  the  "  Song  of  Songs  "  is  a 
drama.    It  is  a  portrayal  of  woman's  love  resisting 
/'  the  enticements  of  ambition.     In  it  there  are  three 
characters  :    a    Shulamite  ^   maiden ;    her   peasant 
I  lover,  to  whom  she  is  betrothed,  and  to  whose  love 
j  she  remains  faithful  under  strong  temptations  to 
\  abandon  him  for  a   supreme    place    at  the    court 
V)f  King  Solomon,  as  the  head  of  his  harem  ;   and 
Solomon  himself.    There  is  also  a  chorus  of  women 
attached  to  the  court,  who  lend  their  influences  in 
co(3peration  with  the  endeavors  of  the  king  to  win 
the    maiden    from    her   betrothed.      No    moral   is 
drawn  ;  no  characterizations  are  furnished  ;  no  in- 
terpretation is  afforded  ;   the  poet  is  unseen ;  an 
invisible  artist  summons  us  to  look  on  while  the 
royal  lover  endeavors  by  every  blandishment  to  win 
the  peasant  girl;   we  are  invited  to  listen  to  her 
replies,  to  witness  even  her  night-dreams,  and  to 
see  at  last  the  victory  which  her  love,  never  for  a 
moment  vacillating,  wins  for  her  and  for  woman. 
In  studying  this  book  there  are  three  considerations 
which  must  be  constantly  in  the  mind  of  the  stu- 
dent. 

I.    This  is  a  drama  only  in  the  largest  sense  of 
that  word  :  it  was  not  probably  composed  to  be 

^  Quoted  in  Century  Dictionary  under  Drama. 

^  Chap.  vi.  13 ;  a  form  of  Shunammite,  a  native  of  Shunem  (Shulem). 


A   DRAMA    OF  LOVE  207 

enacted  on  a  stage,  and  is  not  adapted  for  that 
purpose,  though  it  might  lend  itself  to  performance 
as  a  musical  interlude,  with  the  simplest  scenic 
effects,  or  with  none  at  all.  There  are  clearly  dif- 
ferent songs  to  be  sung  by  different  singers,  some 
male,  some  female ;  but  these  songs  are  not  as- 
signed by  the  author  to  their  respective  characters. 
Except  King  Solomon,  no  personage  is  named. 
There  are  no  stage  directions ;  and  except  in  the 
account  of  Solomon's  entrance  into  Jerusalem  no 
scenic  descriptions.  There  is  no  conversation  ;  no- 
thing that  can  properly  be  called  a  dialogue.^  The 
intei'play  of  thought  and  emotion  is  effected  by  the 
contrast  between  monologues.  The  Song  of  Songs 
is  indeed  rather  a  cycle  of  dramatic  love  songs 
than  a  drama  in  the  modern  sense  of  the  word.  It 
resembles  an  oratorio  rather  than  an  opera,  though 
it  cannot  properly  be  said  to  resemble  either  ;  ex- 
cept that,  as  in  the  oratorio,  the  scenery,  the  occa- 
sion, the  distinctive  character  of  the  three  principal 
personages  are  all  left  to  the  imagination  of  the 
auditor.  It  is  for  this  reason  the  commentators  have 
differed  so  widely  in  their  interpretation :  that 
some  have  conceived  that  there  are  but  two  charac- 
ters, others  that  there  are  three ;   that  some  sup- 

^  The  dramatic  critics  generally  introduce  a  dialogue  element 
in  chap,  i.,  where  they  represent  the  Shulamite's  song,  depreciating 
her  beauty,  as  interpreted  by  the  chorus  with  the  words  '"  hut 
comely,"  and  in  chap,  iii.,  which  tliey  conceive  to  be  a  dialogue 
between  different  citizens  commenting  on  the  splendor  of  the  royal 
procession.  This  appears  to  me  too  modern  and  artificial  to  bo  a 
probable  interpretation  of  the  design  of  tlie  author. 


208     LTFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

pose  the  description  of  Solomon  in  Jerusalem^ 
to  be  furnished  dramatically  by  a  trio  representing 
different  citizens,  others  regard  it  as  a  piece  of 
description  furnished  by  the  poet  himself  and  to 
be  interpreted  either  by  a  kind  of  Greek  chorus, 
or  in  recitative  by  an  interpreter ;  that  some  re- 
gard the  duet  in  chapter  iv.  8-v.  1  as  represent- 
ing an  ideal,  others  as  representing  a  real,  interview 
between  the  Shulamite  and  her  peasant  lover ;  that 
in  some  instances  the  same  song  is  attributed  to 
different  characters  by  different  interpreters.  In 
the  interpretation  of  the  Song  of  Songs  given  in 
this  chapter  I  follow  the  dramatic  interpreter  ;  but 
the  reader  must  remember  that  it  is  impossible  to 
give  such  an  interpretation  without  modernizing 
and  occidentalizing  an  ancient  and  Oriental  song- 
cycle,  and  that  in  such  an  interpretation  much 
necessarily  depends  upon  the  temper  of  the  inter- 
preter.^ 

II.  The  reader  must  also  constantly  bear  in 
mind  the  difference  between  the  language  of  im- 
agination and  the  language  of  symbolism.  The 
language  of  imagination  is  framed  for  the  purpose 

^  Soug  of  Song's,  iii.  6-11. 

2  "  In  ease  some  siiri^rise  should  be  felt  at  the  amount  ■which 
(upon  either  view)  has,  as  it  were,  to  be  read  between  the  lines,  it 
may  be  pointed  out  that,  if  the  poemi  is  to  be  made  intellig-ible, 
its  different  parts  must,  in  one  way  or  another,  be  assigned  to 
different  characters ;  and  as  no  names  mark  the  beginning  of  the 
several  speeches,  these  must  be  supplied,  upon  the  basis  of  such 
clues  as  the  poem  contains,  by  the  comnientator."  Driver''s  Intro- 
duction to  the  Literature  of  the  Old  Testament,  sixth  ed.,  p.  438. 


A   DRAMA    OF  LOVE  209 

of  calling  up  in  the  mind  of  the  auditor  or  reader 
some  image.  It  ought  always  to  be  possible  to 
translate  the  figure  of  speech  into  a  figure  on  canvas. 
It  is  intended  to  be  a  picture,  and  it  is  imperfect 
if  it  cannot  be  translated  into  a  picture.  But  the 
language  of  symbolism  is  not  intended  to  call  up 
in  the  mind  of  the  auditor  or  reader  a  picture  ;  it 
cannot  be  translated  into  a  figure  on  canvas ;  it  is 
not,  and  is  not  intended  to  be,  pictorial.  It  uses 
things  to  represent  ideas,  much  as  in  the  earliest 
hieroglyphic  writing  things  were  used  to  represent 
ideas.  When,  for  example,  the  Hebrew  poet  says 
God  is  a  rock,  he  does  not  mean  to  call  up  in  the 
mind  of  the  reader  the  picture  of  a  rock  and  com- 
pare God  therewith  ;  he  means  to  call  up  the  idea 
of  strength  and  stability ;  he  uses  a  concrete  thing 
to  represent  an  abstract  idea.  The  language  of 
these  love  songs  is  not  the  language  of  imagination, 
and  they  are  not  only  despoiled  of  their  meaning, 
but  in  some  instances  a  grotesque  meaning  is  im- 
ported into  them,  by  reading  them  as  though  they 
were  imaginative.  They  are  symbolical.  Thus 
when  the  maiden  sings  of  her  lover,  "  His  aspect 
is  like  Lebanon,  excellent  as  the  cedars,"  she  does 
not  mean  to  call  up  an  image  of  the  mountain  or 
the  trees ;  she  means  to  call  up  the  ideas  of 
strength  and  beauty  which  they  represent,  and  the 
emotions  which  they  evoke :  the  sight  of  him 
would  be  exhilarating  to  her  as  would  be  the  view 
of  her  beloved  cedar-clad  mountains  in  her  rural 
home.     So  when  Solomon,  praising   the   maiden, 


210     LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

sings  to  her,  "  Thy  neck  is  like  a  tower  of  David 
builded  for  an  armoury,"  he  does  not  intend  to  call 
up  an  image  of  that  tower,  and  trace  a  parallel  be- 
tween the  two ;  he  intends  to  call  up  the  emotions 
which  are  aroused  by  the  beauty  and  perfection 
of  the  finest  piece  of  architecture  in  the  city,  and 
affirm  that  like  emotions  are  evoked  by  the  beauty 
and  perfection  of  the  maiden's  neck  and  shoulders. 
Such  symbolical  use  of  language  is  not  as  common 
with  us  as  it  was  with  the  ancient  Hebrews,  yet  it 
is  not  uncommon.  When  we  say  of  a  person,  "  He 
has  a  sunny  disposition,"  we  do  not  wish  to  call  up 
a  reminiscence  of  the  sunshine  ;  we  use  the  sun- 
shine as  a  symbol,  because  the  disposition  we  de- 
sire to  describe  produces  on  our  spirits  an  effect 
something  analogous  to  that  produced  by  sunshine 
breaking  through  a  cold,  lowering,  and  gloomy 
day.  The  reader  must  resolutely  get  rid  of  the 
idea  that  the  language  of  these  love  songs  is 
the  language  of  imagination.  He  must  get  from 
the  symbol  the  idea  or  emotion  it  is  calculated 
to  produce  and  translate  it  into  that  idea  or  emo- 
tion, 

III.  The  reader  must  remember  also,  in  reading 
this  cycle  of  dramatic  love  songs,  that  they  are  dra- 
matic not  didactic.  The  object  of  the  essayist  is 
to  teach  a  lesson,  the  object  of  the  dramatist  is  to 
produce  an  impression.  The  reader  is  not  to  look 
in  this  drama  for  a  lesson  taught ;  he  is  to  be  re- 
ceptive to  the  impression  intended  to  be  produced. 
That  impression  is  the  spontaneity  and  the  fidelity 


A  DRAMA    OF  LOVE  211 

of  love.  It  is  expressed  in  the  refrain  "  Stir  not 
up  nor  awaken  love  until  it  please,"  and  in  the 
closing  song ;  "  If  a  man  would  give  all  the  sub- 
stance of  his  house  for  love,  he  would  utterly  be 
contemned."  The  reader  must  remember,  too,  that 
the  dramatist  describes  life  as  he  sees  it,  not  as  a 
moralist  might  idealize  it ;  that  this  dramatist  is  an 
Oriental  and  is  writing  for  Oriental  readers ;  and 
that  in  the  Orient  love  is  warmer  and  more  pas- 
sionate, and  its  expression  is  both  cruder  and  more 
unreserved,  than  in  the  modern  life  of  the  West. 
In  short,  the  reader  must  remember  that  the  Song 
of  Songs  is  not  a  sermon  but  a  drama ;  that  in  it 
the  author,  an  Oriental,  uses  Oriental  symbolism, 
in  portraying  Oriental  life,  for  the  purpose  of  pro- 
ducing an  impression  of  the  purity  and  the  strength 
of  woman's  love. 

Bearing  these  considerations  in  mind  let  the 
reader  turn  to  the  Song  of  Songs  itself,  as  it  is 
here  interpreted  in  a  series  of  dramatic  love  songs, 
with  occasional  chorus.^  The  scene  opens  in  North- 
ern Palestine,  whither  Solomon,  with  his  court  and 
his  harem,  has  come  upon  a  summer  excursion. 
The  listener  to  the  love  songs  which  follow  must 
imagine  for  himself  the  scene :  tlie  royal  encamp- 
ment, the  white  tents  set  out  upon  the  plain,  the 

^  In  this  interpretative  rendering  of  this  cycle  of  dramatic  love 
songs,  I  follovir  the  Revised  Version,  sometimes  adopting-  the 
marginal  reading,  and  in  one  or  two  instances  varying  the  trans- 
lation on  the  authority  of  eminent  scholars,  to  make  the  meaning 
clearer. 


212     LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   TEE   HEBREWS 

royal  tent  In  the  centre,  the  military  bands,  the 
court  officers,  the  ladies  of  the  harem  in  their 
gorgeous  apparel.  In  the  midst  of  them  is  a  sun- 
burned peasant  girl,  with  that  fresh  beauty  which 
appears  all  the  more  striking  in  contrast  with  the 
formal  and  artificial  and  somewhat  worn  beauties 
of  the  women  who  make  up  the  Oriental  court. 
The  women  of  the  harem  in  solos  and  chorus 
glorify  the  king ;  the  Shulamite  maiden  depre- 
ciates her  beauty,  which  is  her  peril,  yet  cannot  resist 
the  temptation  coyly  to  qualify  her  self-deprecia- 
tion. 

CHORUS    WITH   solos:    COURT    WOMEN   AND   THE    SHULAMITE.^ 

Chorus.     "  Let  him  kiss  me  with  the  kisses  of  his  mouth  ; 
For  thy  love  is  better  than  wine. 
Thine  ointments  have  a  goodly  fragrance ; 
Thy  name  is  as  ointment  poured  forth  ; 
Therefore  do  the  maidens  love  thee. 
Draw  me  ;  we  ■will  run  after  thee  : 
The  king  hath  brought  me  into  his  chambers  : 
We  will  be  glad  and  rejoice  in  thee, 
We  will  make  mention  of  thy  love  more  than  of  wine : 
Rightly  do  they  love  thee. 

Shulamite.     "  I  am  black —  but  comely  — 
O  ye  daughters  of  Jerusalem, 
As  the  tents  of  Kedar, 
As  the  curtains  of  Solomon. 
Look  not  upon  me,  because  I  am  swarthy, 
Because  the  sun  hath  scorched  me. 
My  mother's  sons  were  incensed  against  me, 
They  made  me  keeper  of  the  vineyards ; 
But  mine  own  vineyard  have  I  not  kept." 

1  Chap.  i.  2-8. 


A  DRAMA   OF  LOVE  213 

Then  she  turns  from  the  women  of  the  court 
and  addresses  herself,  in  imagination,  to  her  absent 
lover. 

"  Tell  me,  0  thou  whom  my  soul  loveth, 

Where  thou  feedest  thy  flock,  where  thou  makest  it  to  rest  at  noon  : 

For  why  should  I  be  as  one  that  wandereth 

Beside  the  flocks  of  thy  companions  ? 

Chorus  {satirically).    "  If  thou  know  not,  0  thou  fairest  among 
women, 
Go  thy  way  forth  by  the  footsteps  of  the  flock, 
And  feed  thy  kids  beside  the  shepherds'  tents." 

Solomon  enters  and  prefers  his  suit  in  person. 
Then  follows  a  duet  between  the  two :  he  promises 
her  jewels,  she  longs  for  her  lover ;  he  flatters  her 
beauty,  she  recalls  her  peasant  home ;  he  promises 
her  a  dwelling-place  in  a  palace  of  cedar,  she  replies 
that  she  is  but  a  lily  of  the  valley ;  he  answers  that 
such  a  lily  in  such  peasant  and  poor  surroundings 
is  as  a  lily  among  thorns,  she  responds  with  remi- 
niscences of  the  simple  joys  of  her  village  life  and 
her  village  lover. 

duo:  SOLOMON  AKD  THE  SHULAMITE.^ 

Solomon.     "  I  have  compared  thee,  O  my  love, 
To  a  steed  in  Pharaoh's  chariots. 
Thy  cheeks  are  comely  with  plaits  of  hair, 
Thy  neck  with  strings  of  jewels. 
We  will  make  thee  plaits  of  gold 
With  studs  of  silver. 

Shulamite.     "  While  the  king  sat  at  his  table, 
My  spikenard  sent  forth  its  fragrance. 
My  beloved  is  unto  me  as  a  bundle  of  myrrh. 
That  lieth  betwixt  my  breasts. 

My  beloved  i '.  unto  me  as  a  cluster  of  henna-flowers 
In  the  vineyards  of  En-gedi. 

1  Chap.  i.  9-ii.  7. 


214     LIFE  AND   LITERATURE   OF   THE  HEBREWS 

Solomon.   "  Behold,  thou  art  fair,  my  love  ;  behold,  thou  art  fair ; 
Thou  hast  doves'  eyes. 

Shulamite    (recalling  her  lover).      "  Behold,  thou  art  fair,  my 
beloved,  yea  pleasant : 
Also  our  couch  is  green. 

Solomon.     "  The  beams  of  our  house  are  cedars, 
And  our  rafters  are  firs. 

Shulamite.     "  I  am  a  rose  of  Sharon, 
A  lily  of  the  valleys. 

Solomon.     "  As  a  lily  among  thorns, 
So  is  my  love  among  the  daughters. 

Shulamite.     "  As  the  apple-tree  among  the  trees  of  the  wood. 
So  is  my  beloved  among  the  sons. 
I  sat  down  under  his  shadow  with  great  delight, 
And  his  fruit  was  sweet  to  my  taste. 
He  brought  me  to  the  banqueting  house, 
And  his  banner  over  me  was  love. 

Stay  ye  me  with  cakes  of  raisins,  comfort  me  with  apples : 
For  I  am  sick  with  love. 
Let  his  left  hand  be  under  my  head, 
And  his  right  hand  embrace  me. 
I  adjure  you,  O  daughters  of  Jerusalem, 
By  the  roes,  and  by  the  hinds  of  the  field, 
That  ye  stir  not  up,  nor  awaken  love, 
Until  it  please." 

Love  is  spontaneous ;  love  springs  up  of  itself. 
Jewels  cannot  buy  it,  gold  cannot  purchase  it, 
ambition  cannot  arouse  it,  courtly  offers  cannot 
win  it.  "I  adjure  you  that  you  try  not  to  stir  or 
awaken  love."  It  springs  spontaneously  or  not  at 
all.  Then  follows  a  reminiscent  song,  in  which  the 
Shulamite,  as  in  a  day-dream,  sees  her  lover  coming 
to  her,  and  hears  his  love  song  at  her  latticed  win- 
dow, and  imagines  herself  replying  to  him  with  a 
familiar  verse  from  their  shepherd  life :  ="  Take  us 
the  foxes,  the  little  foxes." 


A  BEAM  A    OF  LOVE  215 

duo:  the  SHULAMITE  and  the  peasant  LOVER.l 

Shulamite.     "  The  voice  of  my  beloved  !  behold,  he  cometh, 
Leaping  upon  the  mountains,  skipping  upon  the  hills. 
My  beloved  is  like  a  roe  or  a  young  hart : 
Behold,  he  standeth  behind  our  wall, 
He  looketh  in  at  the  windows. 
He  sheweth  himself  through  the  lattice. 
My  beloved  spake,  and  said  unto  me  : 

Lover'' s  Song.     "  Rise  up,  my  love,  my  fair  one,  and  come 

away. 
For,  lo,  the  winter  is  past, 
The  rain  is  over  and  gone  ; 
The  flowers  appear  on  the  earth ; 
The  time  of  the  singing  of  birds  is  come, 
And  the  voice  of  the  turtle  is  heard  in  oar  land ; 
The  fig-tree  ripenetli  her  green  figs. 
And  the  vines  are  in  blossom, 
They  give  forth  their  fragrance. 
Arise,  my  love,  my  fair  one,  and  come  away. 
O  my  dove,  that  art  in  the  clefts  of  the  rock,  in  the  covert  of  the 

steep  place, 
Let  me  see  thy  countenance,  let  me  hear  thy  voice  ; 
For  sweet  is  thy  voice,  and  thy  countenance  is  comely. 

Shulamite's  Song.     "  Take  us  the  foxes,  the  little  foxes,  that 

spoil  the  vineyards ; 
For  our  vineyards  are  in  blossom. 
My  beloved  is  mine,  and  I  am  his : 
He  feedeth  his  flock  among  the  lilies. 
When  the  day  breaks,  and  the  shadows  flee  away. 
Turn,  my  beloved,  and  be  thou  like  a  roe  or  a  young  hart, 
Upon  the  mountains  which  separate  us."  ^ 

1  Chap.  ii.  8-17. 

2  The  verse  is  a  reminiscence  of  a  vinedresser's  song ;  and  it 
intimates  that  her  duties  in  the  vineyard  prevent  her  from  imme- 
diately joining  him.  She  imagines  herself  separated  from  his 
vineyard  by  some  intervening  hills,  and  begs  him  at  the  early 
dawn  to  climb  over  the  mountains  which  separate  them  and  come 
to  her.     All  is  in  the  realm  of  imagination. 


21G     LIFE  AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

The  scene  changes.  The  King  has  returned 
from  Northern  Palestine  to  Jerusalem,  bringing 
the  Shulamite  maiden  with  him.  He  hopes  that 
separation  from  her  lover  will  cause  her  to  forget 
her  love.  But  in  vain  ;  in  her  sleep  she  dreams  of 
her  lover ;  dreams  that  she  sought  him  in  the  city, 
found  him,  and  brought  him  to  her  mother's  house. 
The  song  of  her  dream  ends  with  the  distich  we 
have  already  heard,  "  Stir  not  up,  nor  awaken  love, 
until  it  please." 

SOLO  :     THE    SHULAMITE.* 

The  Shulamite's  Dream.     "  By  night  on  my  bed  I  sought  him 
■whom  my  soul  loveth  : 
I  sought  him,  but  I  found  him  not. 
I  said,  I  will  rise  now,  and  go  about  the  city, 
In  the  streets  and  in  the  broad  ways, 
I  will  seek  him  whom  my  soul  loveth : 
I  sought  him,  but  I  found  him  not. 
The  watchmen  that  go  about  the  city  found  me : 
To  whom  I  said,  Saw  ye  him  whom  my  soul  loveth  ? 
It  was  but  a  little  that  I  passed  from  them, 
When  I  found  him  whom  my  soul  loveth  : 
I  held  him,  and  would  not  let  him  go. 
Until  I  had  brought  him  into  my  mother's  house, 
And  into  the  chamber  of  her  that  conceived  me. 
I  adjure  you,  0  daughters  of  Jerusalem, 
By  the  roes,  and  by  the  hinds  of  the  field, 
That  ye  stir  not  up,  nor  awaken  love, 
Until  it  please." 

To  enhance  the  dramatic  effect  of  the  next  scene, 
in  which  the  King's  appeal  to  the  ambition  of  the 
Shulamite  maiden  is  presented  with  all  the  elo- 

1  Chap.  iii.  1-5. 


A   DRAMA    OF  LOVE  217 

quence  of  which  the  royal  suitor  is  capable,  the 
poet  acts  the  part  of  Greek  Chorus  and  describes 
the  King  and  the  military  procession  which  accom- 
panies him  in  the  streets  of  the  capital. 

SOLO   OR   CHORUS.^ 

',    Interpreter.     "  Who  is  this  that  cometh  up  out  of  the  wilderness 

like  pillars  of  smoke, 
Perfumed  with  myrrh  and  frankincense, 
With  all  powders  of  the  merchant  ? 
Behold,  it  is  the  litter  of  Solomon ; 
Threescore  mighty  men  are  about  it, 
Of  the  mighty  men  of  Israel. 

They  all  handle  the  sword,  and  are  expert  in  war  : 
Every  man  hath  his  sword  upon  his  thigh, 
Because  of  fear  in  the  night. 
King  Solomon  made  himself  a  palanquin 
Of  the  wood  of  Lebanon. 
He  made  the  pillars  thereof  of  silver, 
The  bottom  thereof  of  gold,  the  seat  of  it  of  purple, 
The  midst  thereof  being  paved  with  love, 
From  the  daughters  of  Jerusalem. 

Go  forth,  0  ye  daughters  of  Zion,  and  behold  King  Solomon, 
With  the  crown  wherewith  his  mother  hath  crowned  him  in  the 

day  of  his  espousals. 
And  in  the  day  of  the  gladness  of  his  heart."  ^ 

The  King  in  this  splendor  of  his  city  life  renews 
his  suit :  see  how  he  does  it  —  foolish  wise  man  — 
by  flattery,  not  by  love ;  and  woman's  heart  is  won 

1  Chap.  iii.  6-11. 

^  By  Griffis  and  Daland,  following  Delitzsch  and  Ewald,  this  is 
broken  up  into  responsive  utterances  by  different  citizens:  one 
asks,  Who  is  this  that  cometh  up  out  of  the  wilderness,  a  second 
replies,  Behold,  it  is  the  litter  of  Solomon,  etc.  This  appears  to 
me  to  impart  a  modem  artificiality  into  the  poem.  See  note  on 
page  207,  ante. 


218     LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   TEE   HEBREWS 

by  love,  not  by  flattery.    The  response  is  a  renewed 
protestation  of  her  devotion  to  her  peasant  lover. 

DUO  :     SOLOMON    AND    THE    SHULAMITE.^ 

Solomon.    "  Behold,  thou  art  fair,  my  love  ;  behold,  thou  art  fair ; 
Thou  hast  doves'  eyes  behind  thy  veil :  ^ 
Thy  hair  is  as  a  flock  of  goats, 
That  lie  along  the  side  of  mount  GUead. 
Thy  teeth  are  like  a  flock  of  ewes  that  are  newly  shorn, 
Which  are  come  up  from  the  washing  ; 
Whereof  every  one  hath  twins, 
And  none  is  bereaved  among  them. 
Thy  lips  are  like  a  thread  of  scarlet, 
And  thy  mouth  is  comely  : 
Thy  temples  are  like  a  piece  of  a  pomegranate 
Behind  thy  veil. 

Thy  neck  is  like  the  tower  of  David  builded  for  au  armoury. 
Whereon  there  hang  a  thousand  bucklers, 
All  the  shields  of  the  mighty  men. 

Thy  two  breasts  are  like  two  fawns  that  are  twins  of  a  roe. 
Thou  art  all  fair,  my  love  ;  and  there  is  no  spot  in  thee.^ 

Shulamite.     "  My  beloved  is  mine  and  I  am  his. 
He  feedeth  his  flock  among  the  lilies. 
When  the  day  breaks  and  the  shadows  flee  away 
I  will  get  me  to  the  mountain  of  myrrh 
And  to  the  hill  of  frankincense."  * 

1  Chap.  iv.  1-7. 

2  Compare  chap.  i.  15.  She  was  not  veiled  in  the  country ;  now 
that  she  has  come  up  to  Jerusalem  and  the  palace  she  wears  her 
veil. 

^  This  is  all  the  language  of  symbolism,  not  of  imagination. 
See  page  208  £B.  He  praises  the  delicacy  of  her  hair,  the  white- 
ness of  her  teeth,  the  purity  of  her  complexion,  the  fine  lines  of 
her  mouth,  the  perfect  proportion  of  her  neck  and  shoulders. 

*  For  reasons  for  this  change  in  the  text  see  Dr.  Griffis's  The 
Lily  Among  Thorns,  pp.  204-207.  Verse  6  where  it  stands  in 
the  usual  text  makes  a  break  in  Solomon's  song,  which  is  out  of 
character  with  the  King,  and  the  fact  that  it  repeats  the  words  of 
the  Shulamite  in  chap.  ii.  16,  17,  affords  a  sufficient  reason  for 


A   DRAMA    OF  LOVE  219 

All  the  scenic  effects  In  this  drama,  it  must  be 
remembered,  are  left  to  the  imagination  of  the 
auditors.  Already  the  poet  has  portrayed  the 
Shulamite  imagining  herself  at  home,  and  her  lover 
coming  to  her  over  the  intervening  hills,  and  his 
song  and  her  reply ;  and  again  as  dreaming  of  him 
by  night  and  of  herself  as  seeking  him  in  vain  in 
the  city  of  Jerusalem ;  now  again  he  portrays  her 
day-dream  of  him  interpreted  by  a  duet  between 
the  two.  She  imagines  him  coming  to  her  with  his 
love  song,  full  of  the  reminiscences  of  the  country, 
—  a  song  in  spirit  entirely  different  from  that  of  her 
royal  suitor's ;  and  she  gives  to  this  peasant  lover's 
suit  an  answer  very  different  from  that  which  she 
has  given  to  the  king.  "A  garden  spring  art 
thou,"  she  imagines  him  saying  to  her;  and  herself 
replying,  "  Let  my  lover  come  into  his  garden  and 
eat  his  precious  fruit." 

DUET  :     THE    PEASANT    LOVEK   AND   THE    SHUIiAMlTE.^ 

The  Peasant  Lover.     "  Come  witli  me  from  Lebanon,  my  bride, 
With  me  from  Lebanon  : 
Come  from  the  top  of  Amana, 
From  the  top  of  Senir  and  Hermon, 
From  the  lions'  dens. 
From  the  mountains  of  the  leopards. 
Thon  hast  ravished  my  heart,  my  sister,  my  bride ; 
Thou  hast  ravished  my  heart  with  one  look  from  thine  eyes, 
With  one  chain  of  thy  neck. 
How  fair  is  thy  love,  my  sister,  my  bride ! 
How  much  better  is  thy  love  tliau  wine ! 

believing  that  it  is  here  misplaced,  and  should  be  regarded  as  the 
maiden's  reply  to  the  royal  suitor. 
1  Chap.  iv.  8-v.  1. 


220     LIFE  AND  LITERATURE   OF   THE  HEBREWS 

And  the  smell  of  thine  ointments  than  all  manner  of  spices ! 

Thy  lips,  O  my  bride,  drop  honey  : 

Honey  and  milk  are  under  thy  tongue  ; 

And  the  smell  of  thy  garments  is  like  the  smell  of  Lebanon. 

A  garden  barred  is  my  sister,  my  bride ; 

A  spring  shut  up,  a  fountain  sealed. 

Thy  shoots  are  an  orchard  of  pomegranates,  with  precious  fruits  ; 

Henna  with  spikenard  plants, 

Spikenard  and  saffron, 

Calamus  and  cinnamon,  with  all  trees  of  frankincense ; 

Myrrh  and  aloes,  with  all  the  chief  spices. 

Thou  art  a  fountain  of  gardens, 

A  well  of  living  waters, 

And  flowing  streams  from  Lebanon. 

The  Shulamite.    "  Awake,  O  north  wind ;  and  come,  thou  south ; 
Blow  upon  my  garden,  that  the  spices  thereof  may  flow  out. 
Let  my  beloved  come  into  his  garden, 
And  eat  his  precious  fruits. 

The  Peasant  Lover.     "  I  am  come  into  my  garden,  my  sister, 
my  bride  : 
I  have  gathered  my  myrrh  with  my  spice ; 
I  have  eaten  my  honeycomb  with  my  honey ; 
I  have  drunk  my  wine  with  my  mUk. 
Eat,  O  friends ; 
Drink,  yea,  drink  abundantly,  0  beloved."  ^ 

She  who  dreams  of  her  peasant  lover  by  day 
dreams  of  him  also  by  night ;  she  recites  the  dream 
she  had  while  she  slept,  but  her  heart  kept  awake 
with  love,  and  thought  of  him  who  was  absent,  yet 
to  her  thoughts  ever  present.  In  this  dream  she 
is  at  first  in  her  peasant  home ;  she  hears  his  voice  ; 
he  has  come  dressed  with  care  for  his  call ;  his 
hands  are  anointed  with  the  myrrh,  which  even 

^  The  Shulamite  imagines  that  the  anticipated  wedding  with 
her  peasant  lover  has  taken  place,  and  he,  rejoicing  in  winning 
her,  his  bride,  invites  the  guests  to  join  in  the  wedding  festivities. 


A  BEAAfA    OF  LOVE  221 

the  peasants  used.  She  is  reluctant  to  arise  and 
soil  her  feet  on  the.  earthen  floor ;  when  she  does 
arise  and  takes  hold  of  the  latch  her  hands  are 
covered  with  the  myrrh  —  but  he  is  gone.  And 
when  she  goes  out  to  seek  him,  lo !  she  is  a  stranger 
in  the  strange  city,  unprotected  and  maltreated. 
The  contradictions  of  the  scene  are  just  such  as 
are  common  in  dreams. 

SOLO   AND   CHORUS :    THE    SHULAMITE    AND   THE   COURT   WOIIEN.^ 

The  Shxdamite' s  Second  Dream.     "  I  was  asleep,  but  my  heart  • 
waked. 
It  is  the  voice  of  ray  beloved  that  knocketh,  saying, 

Lover.   "  Open  to  me,  my  sister,  my  love,  my  dove,  my  undefiled  : 
For  my  head  is  filled  with  dew, 
My  locks  with  the  drops  of  the  night. 

Shulamite.     "  I  have  put  off  my  coat ;  how  shall  I  put  it  on  ? 
I  have  washed  my  feet ;   how  shall  I  defile  them  ? 
My  beloved  put  in  his  hand  by  the  hole  of  the  door, 
And  ray  heart  was  moved  within  me. 
I  rose  up  to  open  to  my  beloved  ; 
And  my  hands  dropped  with  myrrh, 
And  my  fingers  with  liquid  myrrh, 
Upon  the  handles  of  the  bolt. 
I  opened  to  my  beloved  ; 

But  ray  beloved  had  withdrawn  himself,  and  was  gone. 
My  soul  failed  me  when  he  spake  : 
I  sought  him,  but  I  coidd  not  find  him  ; 
I  called  him,  but  he  gave  me  no  answer. 
The  watchmen  that  go  about  the  city  found  me, 
They  smote  me,  they  wounded  me  ; 
The  keepers  of  the  walls  took  away  ray  veil  from  me. 
I  adjure  you,  0  daughters  of  Jerusalem,  if  ye  find  my  beloved. 
That  ye  tell  him,  that  I  am  sick  with  love." 

The  women  of  the  harem  can  see  no  reason  why 
1  Chap.  V.  2-vi.  3. 


222      LIFE  AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

the  Shulamite  should  refuse  the  tempting-  offer  of 
the  king  for  the  sake  of  her  peasant  lover.  What 
is  her  beloved  more  than  any  other  beloved  ?  Un- 
solved puzzle  of  all  ages :  why  is  one  woman  to  one 
man  more  than  all  other  women,  and  one  man  to 
one  woman  more  than  all  other  men  ?  She  cannot 
tell ;  they  cannot  tell ;  no  one  can  tell.  But  it 
always  has  been  so  since  Eve  was  brought  to  Adam 
and  they  twain  became  one  flesh.  She  tries  to 
answer  by  giving  a  portrait  of  him.  When  did  a 
lover's  portrait  ever  seem  true  to  other  than  the 
lover  who  painted  it?  In  our  estimate  of  this 
portrait  we  must  remember  that  the  language  is 
not  that  of  imagination,  but  that  of  Oriental  sym- 
bolism.i 

Chorus  of  Women.     "  What  is  thy  beloved  more  than  another 
beloved, 
O  thou  fairest  among  -women  ? 
"WTiat  is  thy  beloved  more  than  another  beloved, 
That  thou  dost  so  adjure  us  ? 

The  Shulamite.     "  My  beloved  is  white  and  ruddy, 
The  chiefest  among  ten  thousand. 
His  head  is  as  the  most  fine  gold. 
His  locks  are  curling,  and  black  as  a  raven. 
His  eyes  are  like  doves  beside  the  water  brooks  ; 
Washed  with  milk,  and  fitly  set. 

His  cheeks  are  as  a  bed  of  spices,  as  banks  of  sweet  herbs : 
His  lips  are  as  lilies,  dropping  liquid  myrrh. 
His  hands  are  as  rings  of  gold  set  with  beryl : 
His  body  is  as  ivory  work  overlaid  with  sapphires. 
His  legs  are  as  pillars  of  marble,  set  upon  sockets  of  fine  gold : 
His  aspect  is  like  Lebanon,  excellent  as  the  cedars. 
His  mouth  is  most  sweet :  yea,  he  is  altogether  lovely. 

^  See  ante,  page  208  ff. 


A  DRAMA    OF  LOVE  223 

This  is  my  beloved,  and  this  is  my  friend, 
0  daughters  of  Jerusalem. 

Chorus  (sarcastically).     "  Whither  is  thy  beloved  gone, 

0  thou  fairest  among  •women  ? 
Whither  hath  thy  beloved  turned  him, 
That  we  may  seek  him  with  thee  ? 

Shulamite.     "  My  beloved  is  gone  down  to  his  garden,  to  the 
beds  of  spices, 
To  feed  in  the  gardens,  and  to  gather  lilies. 

1  am  my  beloved's,  and  my  beloved  is  mine  : 
He  feedeth  his  flock  among  the  lilies." 

One  more  effort  the  King  makes  ;  he  promises 
her  that  if  she  will  come  to  him  she  shall  be  in 
very  truth  his  queen,  supreme,  above  all  others,  the 
only  one.  But  in  vain  his  pleading,  in  vain  the 
anticipations  of  her  glory  by  the  chorus  of  women. 

SOLO  AND   CHORUS  :     SOLOMON   AND   THE   COURT   WOMEN.^ 

Solomon.     "  Thou  art  beautifid,  0  my  love,  as  Tirzah, 
Comely  as  Jerusalem, 
Terrible  as  an  army  with  banners. 
Turn  away  thine  eyes  from  me, 
For  they  have  overcome  me. 
Thy  hair  is  as  a  flock  of  goats, 
That  lie  along  the  side  of  Gilead. 
Thy  teeth  are  like  a  flock  of  ewes, 
Wliich  are  come  up  from  the  washing ; 
Whereof  every  one  hath  twins. 
And  none  is  bereaved  among  them. 
Thy  temples  are  like  a  piece  of  a  pomegranate 
Behind  thy  veil. 

There  are  threescore  queens,  and  fourscore  concubines, 
And  maidens  without  number. 
But  my  dove,  my  undefiled,  is  but  one  ; 
She  is  the  only  one  of  her  mother ; 
She  is  the  choice  one  of  her  that  bare  her. 

1  Chap.  vi.  4-10. 


224     LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   TUE   HEBREWS 

The  daughters  saw  her,  and  called  her  blessed ; 

Yea,  the  queens  and  the  concubines,  and  they  praised  her. 

Chorus   of   Women.     "  Who  is  she  that  looketh  forth  as  the 
morning, 
Fair  as  the  moon. 
Clear  as  the  sun. 
Terrible  as  an  army  with  banners  ?  " 

All  is  in  vain ;  her  heart  is  with  her  lover  in  the 
garden  of  nuts,  watching  to  see  whether  the  vine  is 
in  bud  and  the  pomegranate  is  in  flower ;  compared 
with  these  pleasures  of  her  rural  life  those  of  the 
court  are  nothing  to  her.  She  will  not  be  ungra- 
cious :  when  the  women  ask  her  to  give  them  a 
specimen  of  her  rural  dancing,  she  complies  with 
the  request.  They  join  in  praising  her  grace  and 
beauty,  the  king  adds  his  praises ;  ^  but  this  com- 
mingling in  the  life  of  the  court,  these  courtier-like 
flatteries,  have  no  charm  for  her.  Her  heart  is 
with  her  absent  lover ;  she  longs  to  return  to  him 
and  to  her  rural  life  and  its  simple  pleasures. 

SOLO  AND  CHORUS  :  THE  SHULA:»nTE,  THE  PEASANT  LOVER,  AND 
THE  VILLAGERS.- 

The  Shulamite.     "  I  am  my  beloved's, 
And  his  desire  is  toward  me. 
Come,  my  beloved,  let  us  go  forth  into  the  field ; 
Let  us  lodge  in  the  villages. 
Let  us  get  up  early  to  the  vineyards  ; 

Let  us  see  whether  the  vine  hath  budded,  and  its  blossom  be  open, 
And  the  pomegranates  be  in  flower : 
There  will  I  give  thee  my  love. 

^  Chap.  vi.  11-vii.  9.  See  Daland's  monograph  for  some  sug- 
gestive translations  and  interpretations  of  the  description  of  the 
dance. 

2  Chap.  vii.  10-viii.  7. 


A  DEAMA    OF  LOVE  225 

The  mandrakes  give  forth  fragrance, 

And  at  our  doors  are  ail  manner  of  precious  fruits,  new  and  old, 

Which  I  have  laid  up  for  thee,  0  my  heloved. 

Oh  that  thou  wert  as  my  brother. 

That  sucked  the  breasts  of  my  mother ! 

When  I  should  find  thee  ■without,  I  would  kiss  thee ; 

Yea,  and  none  would  despise  me. 

I  would  lead  thee,  and  bring  thee  into  my  mother's  house, 

Who  would  instruct  me  ; 

I  would  cause  thee  to  drink  of  spiced  wine, 

Of  the  juice  of  my  pomegranate. 

[To  the  women.]     His  left  hand  should  be  under  my  head, 

And  his  right  hand  should  embrace  me. 

I  adjure  you,  0  daughters  of  Jerusalem, 

That  ye  stir  not  up,  nor  awaken  love, 

Until  it  please." 

The  scene  once  more  changes  back  to  Northern 
Palestine.  Love  has  won.  The  Shulamite  maiden 
appears,  leaning  upon  the  arm  of  her  peasant  lover. 
The  village  maidens  sing  a  song  of  greeting  to  vil- 
lage bride  and  groom,  as  they  come  back  to  her 
birthplace,  to  the  home  beneath  the  apple-tree 
where  she  was  given  birth  by  her  mother,  and 
given  a  second  birth  by  love.  For  no  woman  is 
truly  born  into  womanhood  until  she  is  born  anew 
by  love. 

Chorus  of  Village  Maidens.    "  Who  is  this  that  cometh  up  from 
the  wilderness. 
Leaning  upon  her  beloved  ? 

Song  of  Peasant  Lover.     "  Under  the  apple-tree  I  awakened 
thee: 
There  thy  mother  was  in  travail  with  thee, 
There  was  she  in  travail  that  brought  thee  forth. 

Shulamite's  Love  Song.     "  Set  me  as  a  seal  upon  thine  heart,  as 
a  seal  upon  thine  arm  : 
For  love  is  strong  as  death ; 


226     LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

Jealousy  is  cruel  as  the  grave  : 

The  flashes  thereof  are  flashes  of  fire, 

A  very  flame  of  the  Lord. 

Many  waters  cannot  quench  love, 

Neither  can  the  floods  drown  it : 

If  a  man  would  give  all  the  suhstance  of  hig  house  for  love, 

He  would  utterly  be  contemned." 

Love  is  strong  as  death ;  many  waters  cannot 
quench  it;  floods  cannot  drown  it;  and  if  a  man 
would  give  all  the  substance  of  his  house  in  ex- 
change for  love  he  would  utterly  be  condemned ; 
that  is  the  moral  and  meaning  of  this  cycle  of 
dramatic  love  songs. 

Remembering  what  life  was  in  the  Orient,  how 
far  men  had  strayed  away  from  the  first  marriage 
law,  —  one  husband  wedded  to  one  wife  till  death 
do  them  part,  —  how  love  had  died  and  licentious- 
ness had  taken  its  place  in  that  awful  system  of 
polygamy  which  created  the  harem,  can  we  say  that 
there  was  no  need  of  an  inspired  drama  to  produce 
the  impression  of  the  "  Song  of  Songs "  on  the 
Eastern  world  ?  Are  we  sure,  as  we  look  at  life  in 
America,  that  there  is  no  need  that  this  impression 
be  produced  to-day  on  our  own  world?  Is  mar- 
riage a  la  mode  unknown  with  us?  Are  there  no 
parents  who  think  a  good  match  for  the  daughter 
is  a  match  to  a  wealthy  or  a  titled  suitor  ?  Are 
there  no  men  who  weigh  love  against  houses  and 
lands  and  call  love  the  lighter  weight  of  the  two  ? 
Are  there  no  women  who  find  themselves  dis- 
traught between  the  plea  of  ambition  and  the  plea 
of  love  and  know  not  which  plea  to  accept  ?     It 


A   DRAMA    OF  LOVE  227 

may  be  said  that  it  is  the  commonplace  o£  drama 
and  fiction  to  contrast  love  and  ambition  and  exalt 
love.  But  what  shall  we  say  of  the  writer  who 
first  told  the  story  of  this  battle  between  love  and 
ambition  and  put  love  first  ?  And  I  doubt  whether 
there  can  be  found  anywhere  in  ancient  literature 
a  story  of  pure  womanly  love  antedating  the  Song 
of  Songs. 

I  cannot  but  think  that  its  lesson  needs  especial 
emphasis  in  our  time  and  in  our  country.  The 
higher  education  and  the  larger  life  of  woman 
bring  with  them  special  temptation.  Entering  into 
literature,  business,  politics,  woman  is  tempted  by 
ambitions  of  which  formerly  she  knew  nothing. 
In  public  address  the  home  is  often  scoffed  at,  the 
husband  is  treated  as  a  slaveocrat,  and  the  notion 
is  sedulously  advocated  that  woman  rises  into  a 
larger  life  if  she  turns  from  wifehood  and  mother- 
hood to  the  lecture-room,  the  professional  career, 
the  business  office.  These  doors  ought  not  to  be 
shut  against  her  ;  but  it  is  impossible  that  these 
doors  should  be  opened,  and  that  larger  life  given, 
and  all  the  powers  quickened  by  a  broader  educa- 
tion, without  subjecting  her  to  the  temptation  to 
take  ambition  in  place  of  love.  Against  the  notion 
that  it  is  a  nobler  thing  to  be  in  business,  in  a  pro- 
fession, in  politics,  in  literature,  or  on  the  platform 
than  to  be  the  life-companion  of  one  man,  loving 
him  with  fidelity  and  loved  by  him,  this  Song 
of  Songs  exerts  its  sweet  and  sacred  influence  in 


228     LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

behalf  of  love  strong  as  death,  ...  a  very  flame 
of  the  Lord. 

In  some  true  sense  to  every  one  of  us,  man  or 
woman,  come  love  and  ambition  :  God  who  is  love, 
and  the  world  which  is  ambition.^  As  Hercules 
was  invited  in  one  direction  by  pleasure  and  in  the 
other  by  wisdom,  so  every  one  of  us  is  called  in 
one  direction  by  ambition  and  in  the  other  direc- 
tion by  love ;  and  the  great  and  final  message  of 
the  Song  of  Songs  is  that  love  is  the  supreme 
factor  in  human  life.  And  this  truth  of  life  is 
itself  a  parable,  interpreting  the  still  deeper  truth 
that  to  love  God  and  to  be  imited  to  him  is  at  once 
the  supreme  end  and  the  supreme  felicity  of  life. 
For  the  Song  of  Songs  is  an  allegory  in  the  same 
sense  in  which  marriage  is  a  symbol.  The  lesson 
of  the  Song  of  Songs  is  the  strength  and  the  joy 
of  human  love ;  but  that  is  itself  a  prophetic  inter- 
pretation of  the  strength  and  the  joy  of  God's  love 
for  his  own,  and  of  their  love  for  him. 

1  "The  typical  interpretation  is  perfectly  compatible  with 
Ewald's  view,  and,  indeed,  if  combined  with  it,  is  materially 
improved ;  the  heroine's  true  love  then  represents  God,  and  Solo- 
mon, in  better  agreement  with  his  historical  position  and  character, 
represents  the  blandishments  of  the  world,  unable  to  divert  the 
hearts  of  his  faithful  servants  from  him."  An  Introduction  to  the 
Literature  of  the  Old  Testament,  by  S.  R.  Driver,  D.  D.,  p.  451. 


CHAPTER  X 

A   SPIRITUAL   TRAGEDY 

The  Book  of  Job  is  unique  in  literature.  It  is 
almost  impossible  to  classify  it.  Professor  Genung 
calls  it  "  The  Epic  of  the  Inner  Life."  It  is,  how- 
ever, only  by  a  kind  of  figure  that  it  can  be  so 
called.  The  epic  poem  is  supposed  to  relate  at 
length  and  in  metrical  form  "  a  series  of  heroic 
achievements  or  events  under  supernatural  guid- 
ance." ^  This  the  Book  of  Job  does  not  do.  Pro- 
fessor Genung  explains  the  title  which  he  gives  to 
the  book,  and  with  the  explanation  the  title  is  exr 
ceedingly  felicitous :  "  I  regard,"  he  says,  "  this) 
ancient  book  as  the  record  of  a  sublime  epic  action, \ 
whose  scene  is  not  the  tumultuous  battle-field,  nor 
the  arena  of  rash  adventure,  but  the  solitary  soul  1 
of  a  righteous  man."  ^  B^t  on  the  one  hand,  to 
designate  the  narrative  of  such  a  struggle  in  the 
soul  of  a  righteous  man  as  an  epic  is  to  give  to  the 
word  a  new,  though  a  not  inaj^propriate  meaning  ; 
and  on  the  other,  this  description  of  the  poem  indi- 
cates but  one  phase,  and  not  the  most  important 
nor  even  the  most  interesting  phase,  of  the  book. 

^  Century  Dictionary. 

2  The  Epic  of  the  Inner  Life,  by  John  F.  Genung,  pp.  20-26. 


230     LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

It  is  called,  with  great  verisimilitude,  a  drama,  by 
John  Owen,  and  he  not  inaptly  compares  it  with 
"  The  Prometheus  Bound  "  of  ^schylus,  Goethe's 
*'  Faust,"  Shakespeare's  "  Hamlet,"  and  Calderon's 
"  Wonder-Working  Magician."  ^  Yet  this  word 
"  drama  "  certainly  suggests,  if  it  does  not  require, 
action  accompanying  and  helping  to  create  the 
necessity  for  the  speech,  and  in  the  Book  of  Job, 
except  in  the  prologue,  there  is  no  action.  What- 
ever may  be  said  of  its  spirit,  in  its  form  it  does 
not  resemble  the  other  great  dramas  to  which  Mr. 
Owen  compares  it.  Biblical  scholars  have  gen- 
erally classified  the  Book  of  Job  with  the  "  Wisdom 
Literature."  The  Wisdom  Literature  was  the 
nearest  approximation  which  the  Hebrews  made  to 
(.philosojDhy.  The  philosopher  is  interested  in  truth 
for  its  own  sake  ;  interested  in  the  interrelation- 
ship of  different  truths;  interested  in  correlating 
and  harmonizing  truths  and  so  adjusting  them  as 
to  make  a  more  or  less  complete  system  of  truth. 
The  Hebrew  had  little  or  no  interest  in  this  pro- 
cess ;  he  never  undertook  it ;  he  was  interested  in 
truths  but  not  in  truth,  and  in  truths  only  as  they 
bore  upon  conduct  and  life.  His  wisdom,  therefore, 
took  the  form  not  of  general  systems,  but  of  spe- 
cific affirmations  of  principles  in  their  relation  to 
actual  life  conditions.  The  Hebrew's  philosophy 
was  not  abstract,  but  concrete  ;  not  genei-ic,  but 
applied  ;  not  scholastic,  but  expressed  in  the  terms 
of  experience.  Thus  the  tendency  of  his  philosophy 
1  The  Five  Great  Sceptical  Dramas  of  History,  by  John  Owen. 


A   SPIRITUAL    TRAGEDY  231 

was  either  to  aphoristic  forms,  as  in  the  Book  of 
Proverbs ;  or  to  dramatic  forms,  as  in  the  Song 
of  Songs  and  the  Book  of  Job  ;  or  to  an  admixture 
of  the  two,  as  in  the  Book  of  Ecclesiastes.  On  the 
whole  it  appears  to  me  that  in  Biblical  criticism, 
the  Book  of  Job  has  been  correctly  classified  ;  that 
its    epic   character  —  as    the    narrative   of   a    soul 

f  struggle,  —  and  its  dramatic  character  —  as  the  in- 
terplay of  human^ thought  and  emotion,  —  are  sub- 
sidiary to  its  philosophic  character,  as  the  discus- 
sion of  a  profound  problem  of  human  life  ;  but 
that  this  discussion  is  not  abstract  and  intellectual 
but  vital  and  dramatic.  Its  interest  lies  not  in  any 
theory  which  it  promulgates,  but  in  human  experi- 
ence and  in  the  bearing  of  a  jiopular  theory  upon 
human  experience  in  a  time  of  trial.  Professor 
Kent  calls  the  book  "  Philosophical  Drama."  ^  I 
should  rather,  with  a  slight  difference  in  emphasis, 
call  it  Dramatic  Philosophy .^ 

1  The  Wise  Men  of  Ancient  History  and  their  Proverbs,  by 
Charles  Foster  Kent,  Ph.  D. 

2  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  consider  as  a  possible  theory  that  the 
Book  of  Job  is  historical  ;  the  epilogue  alone  is  quite  conclusive 
upon  that  point.  At  the  same  time  it  is  possible  that  it  had  an 
historical  foxmdation,  as  most  of  the  greater  works  of  fiction  have 
had.  "  '  Hamlet '  rests  on  an  historical  foundation  ;  so  does  '  Mac- 
beth ; '  yet  they  are  -works  of  imagination.  '  The  King  and  the 
Book '  is  founded  on  fact ;  Mr.  Browning  dug  the  substance  of 
the  story  out  of  an  old  law  report.  In  Ezekiel  Job  is  referred  to 
as  if  he  were  a  well-known  person.  It  is  possible,  of  course,  (hat 
the  allusion  here  may  be  literary.  We  often  speak  of  Polonius, 
or  Colonel  Newcome,  or  Mr.  Pickwick  as  though  they  were  real 
characters.  It  is,  however,  altogether  probable  that  Job  was  an 
historical  person,  and  that  traditions  concerning  him  were  current 


232     LIFE  AND   LITERATURE   OF  TEE  HEBREWS 

Without,  then,  endeavoring  to  classify  the  Book 
of  Job,  we  may  say  of  it  that  it  has  some  of  the  ^ 
qualities  of  all  three  types  of  literature,  —  the  epic^, 
the  drama,  philosophy,  but  not  all  of  the  character- 
istics of  either.     If  it  be  regarded  as  an  epic,  it  is 
what  Professor  Genung  calls  it,  an  epic  of  the  inner 
life.     The  epics  of  Homer  deal  with  external  ad- 
venture and  with  character  as  it  is  evolved  oiit  of 
and  manifested  in  adventurous  experiences.    There 
is  no  action  in  the  Book  of  Job.     Throughout  the 
poem  the  central  figure  sits  among  the  ashes,  his 
only  adventures   those  of   the   spirit,   striving   by 
much  vain  reflection  to  solve  the  mystery  of  life. 
Not  even  by  external  symbols,  as  in  Dante,  are  his 
spiritual   struggles   represented.     If    the  book  be 
regarded    as  a  drama    it    is   a^jnonodrama.     The 
celestial  movement  is  introduced  in  the  prologue 
/simply  to  interpret  the  drama  to  us  ;  the  wife  and 
\  the  friends  are  but  foils.,  partly  to  give  occasion  to 
]  Job's  discourse,  partly  by  contrast  to  interpret  it. 
All  attempt  to  find  in  them_  distinctive  characters 
f  is  in  vain.     Froude  well  says,  "  The  friends  repeat 
/  one  another  with  but  little  difference  ;  the  sameness 
\  being  of  course  intentional,  as  showing  that  they 
j  were  not  speaking  for  themselves  but  as  represen- 
j  tatives  of  a  prevailing  opinion."  ^     The  only  actor 
^  in  the  drama  is  Job  himself ;  the  only  action  the 

among  the  Jews."     Seven  Puzzling  Bible  Books,  by  'Washington 
Gladden,  D.  D.,  p.  109. 

1  Short  Studies  on  Great  Subjects :   The  Book  of  Job,  by  James 
Anthony  Froude,  M.  A.,  p.  249. 


A   SPIRITUAL    TRAGEDY  233 

battle  between  faith  and  skepticism,  hope  and  de- 
spair, in  his  own  soul.  If  the  book  be  regarded 
as  pliilosophy,  it  is  philosophy  translated  into  the 
terms  of  experience.  There  is  here  no  philosopher 
coolly  studying  the  problem  of  life  as  a  geologist 
studies  an  ancient  fossil,  or  an  anatomist  the  dead 
body  which  he  dissects.  The  problems  of  life,  love, 
death,  and  sorrow  are  not  studied  as  problems. 
There  is  no  argument  here  for  immortality  as  in 
the  Phaido  of  Socrates,  no  argument  for  the  exist- 
ence of  a  God  as  in  Diman's  "Theistic  Argument  " 
or  Flint's  "  Theism,"  no  balancing  of  probabilities 
to  reach  a  conclusion  as  in  Bishop  Butler's  "  An- 
alogy of  Religion."  The  soul  of  a  good  and  godly 
man  is  portrayed  in  its  living  agony,  seeking  to 
find,  in  spite  of  the  apparent  injustice  of  life,  a 
ground  for  its  faith  in  the  reality  and  the  sov- 
ereignty of  truth  and  goodness.  Job  is  a  kind  of 
spiritual  Laocoon,  wrestling  with  the  twin  serpents 
of  doubt  and  despair,  and  to  him  they  are  such 
dreadful  realities  that  he  has  no  thought  for  fine 
philosophies  or  scientific  reasonings.  The  method 
of  the  Book  of  Job  is  the  reverse  of  the  scientific 
method ;  the  problem  is  presented  to  the  reader  as 
one  of  ex]3erience,  not  as  one  of  philosophy.    1 

The  date  of  the  book  is'  entirely  unknown,  as  is 
its  author ;  formerly  it  was  supposed  to  be  one  of 
the  oldest  books  in  the  Bible ;  ^   modern  scholars 

1  Thus  in  TownsencVs  Bible,  which  undertook  to  print  the  whole 
of  the  Bible  in  a  true  chronological  order,  the  Book  of  Job  is 
printed  among  the  Genesis  narratives  immediately  prior  to  the 


234     LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

regard  it  as  one  o£  the  latest.^  Thus  the  supposed 
date  for  its  composition  has  fluctuated  between 
B.  c.  2337  and  b.  c.  400.  The  arguments  for  the 
earlier  date  may  all  be  summed  up  in  the  fact  that 
the  scene  is  laid  in  the  patriarchal  age ;  the  chief 
argument  for  the  later  date  is  that  the  line  of 
thought  in  the  book  presupposes  a  much  later  in- 
tellectual development  than  can  be  attributed  to 
the  patriarchs.^ 

Whatever  the  date  of  the  composition,  there  is 
no  doubt  as  to  the  time  fixed  in  the  author's  mind 
for  the  events  described  and  the  discussion  to  which 
those  events  give  rise.  It  is  as  certain  that  the 
Book  of  Job  deals  with  conditions  existing  prior  to 
the  giving  of  the  law  under  ]\Ioses,  as  it  is  that 
Shakespeare's  "  Julius  Caesar "  deals  with  scenes 
and  events  in  Rome  in  the  first  century  before 
Christ.     And  while  the  date  and  authorship  of  the 

call  of  Abram.  Mr.  Townsend  says,  "  The  life  of  Job  is  placed 
before  the  life  of  Abraham,  on  the  authority  of  Dr.  Hales.  Job 
himself,  or  one  of  his  contemporaries,  is  generally  supposed  to 
have  been  the  author  of  this  book ;  which  Moses  obtained  when 
in  Midian,  and,  with  some  alterations,  addressed  to  the  Israelites." 
The  Old  Testament  arranged  in  Historical  and  Chronological  Order, 
by  the  Rev.  George  Townseud,  M.  A.,  p.  35,  note. 

1  "  It  is  not  possible  to  fix  the  date  of  the  Book  (Job)  precisely  ; 
but  it  will  certainly  not  be  earlier  than  the  age  of  Jeremiah,  and 
most  probably  it  was  written  either  during  or  shortly  after  the 
Babylonian  captivity."  An  Introduction  to  the  Literature  of  the 
Old  Testament,  by  S.  R.  Driver,  D.  D.,  p.  432. 

^  For  the  arguments  for  the  earlier  date  see  note  in  Townsend's 
Bible,  p.  35  ;  for  arguments  for  the  later  date  see  Driver's  Intro- 
duction, pp.  431-435,  and  The  Book  of  Job,  by  R.  W.  Raymondj 
Ph.  D.,  pp.  50-82. 


A   SPIRITUAL    TRAGEDY  235 

book  are  matters  of  no  considerable  importance,  the 
date  affixed  by  the  author  to  the  scenes  and  discus- 
sions in  the  book  is  of  the  first  importance.  The 
discussions  of  the  boolc  concern  the  profouudest 
problems  of  religion ;  but  there  is  no  suggestion  in 
it  of  a  temple,  a  tabernacle,  a  Levitical  priesthood, 
a  sacrificial  system,  the  Ten  Commandments,  or  to 
any  prophet  or  any  events  in  Jewish  history,  or 
indeed  to  any  revelation  of  God  whatever  other 
than  that  which  is  made  through  nature.  The 
object  of  the  book,  whoever  wrote  it,  and  whenever 
it  was  written,  is  to  portray  the  mental  and  spir- 
itual conditions  of  an  earnest  and  devout  soul,  con- 
fronted by  the  profoundest  problem  of  human  life, 
—  the  significance  of  suffering,  —  with  no  other 
light  upon  that  problem  than  such  as  is  afforded 
by  a  study  of  nature.  This  fact  is  to  be  kept  con- 
stantly in  mind  in  reading  this  poem.  It  cannot 
be  understood  at  all,  except  as  the  reader  puts 
himself  back  in  imagination  into  the  early  patri- 
archal age,  the  age  of  Abram  before  his  vision  of 
God,  the  age  which  preceded  or  was  outside  of  all 
special  revelation  of  God  in  and  to  human  experi- 
ence through  prophets  or  lawgivers.  The  success 
with  which  the  author  has  achieved  the  difficult 
task,  not  merely  of  portraying  the  outward  charac- 
ter of  this  age,  but  of  interjjreting  its  mental  and 
moral  conditions,  constitutes  the  strongest  reason 
for  questioning  the  conclusion  of  modern  scholars 
that  it  was  written  after  the  age  of  Solomon.  If 
they  are  right  in  their  conclusions,  —  and  on  such 


236     LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

questions  it  is  generally  wise  for  the  inexpert  reader 
to  accept  the  conclusions  of  the  expert,  —  the  im- 
aginative genius  of  the  unknown  author  is  almost 
without  a  parallel  in  literature.  Historic  dramas 
and  novels  are  almost  invariably  full  of  anachro- 
nisms. Not  only  the  outward  life  is  often  imper- 
fectly portrayed,  but  habitually  sentiments  and 
thoughts  which  belong  to  a  later  age  are  imputed 
to  the  characters  of  a  previous  age.  Shakespeare's 
historic  plays  do  not  attempt  accuracy  either  in 
their  historic  setting  or  in  their  psychological 
portraiture.  Walter  Scott's  historical  novels  have 
even  less  vraisemblance  to  the  mental  and  moral 
life  of  the  times  in  which  they  are  laid.  Of  modern 
novels  "  Henry  Esmond  "  and  "  Lorna  Doone  " 
are  perhaps  the  only  two  which  can  be  said  to  ap- 
proximate accuracy  as  historical  pictures  of  either 
the  outer  or  the  inner  life.  But  the  Book  of  Job 
is  almost  if  not  absolutely  free  from  anachronisms. 
All  that  we  know  of  the  patriarchal  age  leads  us  to 
the  conclusion  that  the  book  is  photographic  in  its 
realistic  portraitui'e  of  that  time,  and  in  its  sympa- 
thetic understanding  of  the  thoughts  of  a  people 
unto  whom  no  light  had  come  from  any  open 
vision.  Let  us  try  first  to  restate  to  ourselves  in 
undramatic  form  the  mental  state  of  such  a  people. 
Says  George  Eliot,  "  A  shadowy  conception  of 
power  that  by  much  persuasion  can  be  induced  to 
refrain  from  inflicting  harm,  is  the  shape  most 
easily  taken  by  the  sense  of  the  Invisible  in  the 
minds  of  men  who  have  always  been  pressed  close 


A   SPIRITUAL    TRAGEDY  237 

by  primitive  wants,  and  to  whom  a  life  of  hard  toil 
has  never  been  illuminated  by  any  enthusiastic 
religious  faith."  ^  That  she  here  correctly  de- 
scribes the  primitive  form  of  religious  belief,  which 
is  founded  on  fear  of  some  unknown  supernatural 
power  or  powers,  is  clear  to  all  who  have  made  any 
study  of  pagan  religions.  Imagine  that  there  has 
been  gradually  added  to  this  earliest  belief  the 
conviction  expressed  in  Abram's  question,  "  Shall 
not  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth  do  right?"  the  con- 
viction that  there  is  one  God  and  that  he  is  a  right- 
eous God  ;  the  deduction  is  inevitable  and  irresist- 
ible, that  the  way  to  avoid  the  harm  which  he  can 
and  sometimes  does  inflict  is  by  living  righteously. 
Thus  life  is  conceived  of  as  under  divine  law  and  a 
divine  lawgiver ;  if  we  obey  his  righteous  will  and 
are  righteous  he  will  reward  us ;  if  we  disobey  his 
righteous  will  and  are  unrighteous  he  will  punish 
us.  Happiness  and  suffering  cease  to  be  regarded 
as  either  accidental  occurrences  or  arbitrar}-  inflic- 
tions; they  constitute  a  system  of  rewards  and 
jjuuishments ;  prosperity  is  interpreted  as  a  sign  of 
divine  approval,  and  suffering  as  a  sign  of  divine 
condemnation.  Thus  far  and  no  farther  had  reli- 
gious faith  developed  in  the  patriarchal  age.  The 
reward  of  virtue  was  attested  in  Abram's  career  b}^ 
a  great  wealth  of  flocks  and  herds;  the  penalty  of 
vice  was  attested  by  the  destruction  of  the  Cities  of 
the  Plain.  What  measure  of  truth  there  is  in  this 
conception  of  happiness  and  suffering  as  a  divine 
^  Silas  Marner,  by  George  Eliot,  chap.  i. 


238     LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   TUE   HEBREWS 

system  of  rewards  and  penalties,  it  does  not  come 
within  my  province  here  to  consider ;  that  it  is  the 
whole  truth  no  one  will  believe  who  regards  Jesus 
Christ  as  at  once  the  supreme  object  of  his  Father's 
approving  love  and  as  the  Man  of  Sorrows.  That 
pain  is  sometimes  penal  is  certain ;  that  it  has  other 
ministries  than  punishment  is  also  certain  ;  that 
it  is  in  itself  an  evidence  of  divine  disfavor  no 
Christian  believer  can  for  a  moment  seriously  sup- 
pose. But  in  the  patriarchal  age  this  was  the  uni- 
versal estimate  of  the  place  of  pain  in  the  divine 
economy. 

Trained  in  this  belief  until  it  had  become  axio- 
matic with  him,  not  an  opinion  consciously  deduced 
from  a  study  of  life,  but  a  part  of  his  intellectual 
existence  into  which  he  had  grown  from  his  youth 
up.  Job  had  lived  a  virtuous  life  and  had  prospered. 
His  religion  had  been  real,  not  formal ;  had  ruled 
his  life,  not  merely  served  as  an  appendage  to  it. 
Stung  by  the  reproaches  of  his  friends  he  thus 
describes  the  spirit  of  his  life  ;  and  the  divine  ap- 
proval explicitly  expressed  by  Jehovah,  alike  in  the 
prologue  and  at  the  end  of  the  drama,  shows  con- 
clusively that  it  is  no  complacent  self-portraiture 
of  an  unconscious  pretender,  but  is  intended  by  the 
author  as  a  dramatic  representation  of  the  hero  of 
his  story. 

"  Oh  that  I  were  as  in  the  months  of  old, 
As  in  the  days  when  God  watched  over  me ; 
When  his  lamp  shined  upon  my  head, 
And  by  his  light  I  walked  through  darkness ; 
As  I  was  in  my  autumn  days, 


A   SPIRIT VAL    TRAGEDY  2'6\3 

When  tlie  friendship  of  God  was  over  my  tent ; 

When  the  Almighty  was  yet  with  me, 

And  my  children  were  about  me  ; 

When  my  steps  were  washed  with  butter 

And  the  rock  poured  me  out  rivers  of  oil ; 

When  I  went  forth  to  the  gate  by  the  city  ; 

When  I  fixed  my  seat  in  the  open  place. 

The  young  men  saw  me,  and  withdrew  themselves, 

And  the  aged  rose  up  and  stood  ; 

The  princes  refrained  talking 

And  laid  their  hand  on  their  mouth ; 

The  voice  of  the  nobles  was  hushed. 

And  their  tongue  cleaved  to  the  roof  of  their  mouth. 

For  the  ear  that  heard  blessed  me  ; 
Aud  the  eye  that  saw  bare  witness  for  me ; 
Because  I  had  delivered  the  poor  when  he  cried. 
The  fatherless  also,  and  him  that  had  no  helper. 
The  blessing  of  him  that  was  ready  to  perish  came  upon  me  ; 
And  I  caused  the  widow's  heart  to  sing  for  joy. 
I  clothed  myself  with  justice,  and  it  clothed  itself  with  me ; 
As  a  mantle  and  as  a  turban  was  my  judgment. 
I  was  eyes  to  the  blind, 
And  feet  was  I  to  the  lame. 
I  was  a  father  to  the  needy 

And  the  cause  of  him  that  I  knew  not  I  searched  out. 
And  I  brake  the  fangs  of  the  unrighteous 
And  from  his  teeth  I  snatched  the  prey.  "  ^ 

Such  was  the  character,  such  the  previous  life  of 
the  central  figure  in  the  poem,  by  whose  experience 
the  current  theology  of  his  time  is  to  be  tested ; 

^  Job  xxix.  2-17.  The  translations  throughout  this  chapter  are 
taken  either  from  the  Revised  Version,  or  from  Professor  Genung's 
translation  in  The  Epic  of  the  Inner  Life,  or  are  produced  by  a 
combination  of  the  two.  To  Professor  Genung's  volume,  one  of 
the  best  fruits  of  the  modern  or  literary  study  of  the  Bible,  I 
desire  to  acknowledge  my  special  indebtedness  in  the  preparation 
of  this  chapter. 


240    LIFE  AND   LITERATURE   OF   THE  HEBREWS 

in  whose  experience  the  world  drama  of  life,  love, 
death,  and  sorrow  is  to  be  portrayed ;  through 
whose  experience  also  is  to  be  illustrated,  if  I  read 
the  story  aright,  the  soid's  need  of  some  other  reve- 
lation of  God  and  his  truth  than  is  afforded  by  the 
mere  study  of  nature  and  of  life. 

The  drama  opens  with  a  prologue  in  the  celestial 
sphere.  The  sons  of  God  come  on  a  certain  day 
before  the  throne  of  Jehovah  to  give  an  account 
of  themselves.  They  are  like  inspectors  who  have 
gone  out  into  the  various  parts  of  the  king's  domain 
and  come  back  to  report  what  they  have  seen. 
One  of  them  is  called  the  Adversary.  He  is  not  • 
the  embodiment  of  all  evil,  —  a  demon  of  malice,  a 
prince  of  wickedness,  the  Satan  of  Milton,  the 
Apollyon  of  Bunyan.  He  is  a  type  of  wickedness' 
in  its  earlier  stages ;  the  cynic  among  the  angels ;! 
who  does  not  believe  in  disinterested  virtue ;  butl 
who  yet  makes  his  tour  of  the  earth  with  other 
angels  and  with  them  comes,  unforbidden,  into  the 
court  of  heaven  to  report  what  he  has  seen.  To 
this  cynic  Jehovah  says :  "  Have  you  considered 
Job,  my  servant,  how  upright  a  man  he  is  ? " 
"  Upright !  "  replies  the  Adversary  ;  "  who  would 
not  be  upright  if  he  were  paid  as  well  as  Job? 
Doth  he  serve  God  for  naught?  Take  away  his 
prosperity  and  see  how  quickly  he  will  part  with 
his  uprightness."  Thus  dramatically  is  presented 
the  one  conclusive  argument  against  the  doctrine 
that  virtue  is  paid  for  by  Providence.  If  it  were 
paid  for  it  would  not  be  virtue ;  it  would  only  be  a 


A   SPIRITUAL    TRAGEDY  241 

subtler  and  shrewder  form  of  self-service.  The 
arofument  is  not  formulated,  hut  its  force  is  instinc- 
tively  felt  by  the  reader,  who  perceives  that  if  Job 
does  not  stand  the  test  proposed  he  will  be  proved 
not  to  have  been  virtuous  but  only  shrewd.  Virtue 
must  be  its  own  reward  or  it  is  no  virtue.  To  this 
unexpressed  premise  of  the  cynic's  argument  Je- 
hovah accedes ;  he  accepts  the  challenge ;  and  he 
gives  the  Adversary  freedom  to  apply  the  test  him- 
self ;  "  only,"  he  says,  "  upon  him  put  not  forth 
thine  hand." 

The  scene  is  shifted  to  the  earth,  where  the 
Adversary's  work  is  seen  by  the  spectator,  though 
the  part  of  the  Adversary  is  unknown  to  those  who 
suffer  from  it.  There  is  a  family  gathering  ;  all 
the  sons  and  daughters  of  Job  have  met  in  the 
eldest  brother's  house ;  Job,  as  we  shoidd  say  provi- 
dentially, is  somewhere  without,  when  a  messenger 
comes  to  him  with  the  word  that  the  Sabeans  in  a 
foray  have  carried  off  a  portion  of  his  property  and 
slain  the  servants ;  a  second  messenger  treads  close 
upon  his  heels  with  the  report  of  a  bolt  of  lightning 
which  has  destroyed  his  sheep  and  killed  the  shep- 
herds ;  a  third  follows  with  the  word  that  three 
bands  of  Chaldeans  have  carried  off  the  camels 
and  slain  their  keepers ;  a  fourth  that  a  great  wind 
has  smitten  the  house  in  which  his  sons  and  daugh- 
ters were  feasting  and  buried  them  in  the  ruins 
and  not  one  has  escaped  alive.  This  morning  Job 
was  prosperous  and  happy ;  now  he  is  in  poverty 
and    bereaved.      But   he    does    not    surrender   his 


242     LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

virtue  nor  lose  his  faith.  "  Naked,"  he  says,  "  I 
came  into  the  world,  and  naked  shall  I  go  out; 
Jehovah  hath  given,  Jehovah  hath  taken  away ; 
blessed  be  the  name  of  Jehovah." 

The  scene  shifts  back  to  the  celestial  sphere, 
where  the  cynic  comes  with  the  other  angels  to 
make  his  report.  Jehovah  asks  him  if  he  is  satis- 
fied that  Job's  virtue  was  disinterested :  "  He  still 
holdeth  fast  his  integrity,  although  thou  movedest 
me  against  him  to  destroy  him  without  cause." 
But  the  cynic  is  not  satisfied :  "  Skin  for  skin,"  he 
says ;  "  yea,  all  that  a  man  hath  will  he  give  for  his 
life.  But  put  forth  thine  hand  now  and  touch  his 
bone  and  his  flesh,  and  he  will  renounce  thee  to 
thy  face."  Jehovah  accepts  the  second  challenge ; 
again  gives  the  Adversary  permission  to  do  his 
worst  to  Job,  so  that  he  save  him  alive.  And  the 
Adversary  goes  forth,  first  to  smite  Job  with  a 
painful  and  humiliating  disease ;  then  to  turn  his 
wife  also  into  a  cynic ;  ^  and  finally  to  send  him 
three  friends  to  console  him  by  telling  him  that  he 
must  have  been  a  great  sinner  or  he  could  not  be  a 

1  "  One  of  the  curious  difficulties  of  the  Book  of  Job  is  the 
various  renderings  of  which  its  somewhat  strange  language  seems 
to  be  capable.  In  our  English  Bible  the  wife's  counsel  is  '  Curse 
God  and  die.'  In  the  vulgate,  followed  by  the  French,  it  is  '  Bless 
God  and  die.'  And  yet,  radical  as  seems  the  difFerence,  the 
difPerence  is  more  apparent  than  real ;  in  the  one  case  she  speaks 
seriously,  '  Of  what  benefit  is  your  God  to  you  ?  Curse  him  and 
then  die ; '  in  the  other  she  speaks  ironically,  '  You  bless  your 
Jehovah,  do  you  ?  you  worship  him  ?  you  say  blessed  be  the  name 
of  Jehovah  that  taketh  away  ?  Well,  bless  him  and  die !  What 
will  he  do  for  your  blessing  ?  " 


A   SPIRITUAL    TRAGEDY  243 

great  sufferer.  So  the  Epilogue  ends,  and  the  true 
drama,  the  debate  between  Job  and  his  friends, 
begins.  His  wife  believes  in  his  integrity,  but  not 
in  his  pi'inciples.  She  sneers  at  his  faith  ;  counsels 
him  to  abandon  it;  and  advises  suicide  as  a  last 
and  only  refuge.  His  friends  share  his  sorrow, 
share  it  so  heartily  that  for  seven  days  and  nights 
they  sit  speechless  beside  him ;  but  while  they 
believe  in  his  theology  they  do  not  believe  in  his 
integrity ;  for  truth  to  tell,  it  is  impossible  to  believe 
in  both.  That  theology  is  very  simple :  Jehovah 
is  the  ruler  of  life  and  Jehovah  is  just ;  therefore 
if  suffering  has  fallen  upon  any  man  it  must  be 
because  he  has  sinned  and  deserves  punishment. 
First  gently,  then  with  continually  increasing  pim- 
gency,  and  sometimes  with  temper,  they  urge  Job 
to  confess  the  sins  which  he  has  kept  concealed 
from  his  fellows,  and  so  escape  the  continued  dis- 
pleasure of  his  God. 

At  times  Job  seems  inclined  to  accept  his  wife's  \ 
counsel.  He  does  not  curse  God,  but  he  curses  the 
day  wherein  he  was  born  with  an  execration  so 
bitter  that  it  arouses  the  pious  protest  of  his  friend 
Eliphaz.  He  does  not  commit  suicide  nor  think 
of  so  doing,  but  he  longs  for  death,  and  beseeches 
Jehovah  to  crush  him. 

"  Wherefore,"  he  cries,  "  is  light  given  to  him  that  is  in  misery, 
And  life  unto  the  bitter  in  soul  ? 
Which  long  for  death  hut  it  cometli  not, 
And  dig  for  it  more  than  for  hid  treasures, 
Which  rejoice  exceedingly, 
And  are  glad  when  they  can  find  the  grave  ? 


244     LIFE   AXI)   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

Why  is  light  given  to  a  man  whose  way  is  hid, 
And  whom  God  hath  hedged  in  ?  "  ^ 

But  never  once  does  he  yield  to  the  exhortations  of 
his  orthodox  friends ;  never  once  does  he  lose  faith 
in  his  own  integrity ;  never  once  does  he  entertain, 
even  for  an  instant,  the  suggestion  that  he  make 
his  peace  with  the  unknown  God,  by  pretending  to 
a  confession  of  sins  which  he  has  not  committed,  a 
penitence  which  he  does  not  feel,  and  a  recognition 
of  the  justice  of  his  sufferings  against  which  his 
soul  vehemently  protests.  It  is  this  conflict  be- 
tween the  theology  which  had  become  a  part  of  his 
religion,  and  this  truth  of  life  which  nothing  will 
induce  him  to  deny,  which  makes  the  tragedy  of 
his  spiritual  experience.  His  religion  has  been 
built  on  his  faith  that  a  just  God  is  the  ruler  of 
this  life,  and  therefore  this  life  is  just.  To  him  has 
never  come  any  external  revelation ;  he  knows  no- 
thing of  the  deliverance  of  Israel  from  Egypt ;  of 
the  passage  through  the  Red  Sea ;  of  the  giving 
of  the  law  to  Moses  at  Mt.  Sinai ;  of  the  preser- 
vation of  Israel  in  the  wanderings  in  the  wilder- 
ness ;  of  God's  patient  forgiveness  of  his  sinning 
people;  of  Joshua's  victories;  of  David's  songful 
visions  of  God ;  of  Elijah's  experiences  of  divine 
support.  He  cannot  buttress  his  weakened  faith  by 
resting  in  these  confirmatory  experiences  of  others. 
He  can  get  no  help  from  his  wife,  who  has  aban- 
doned faith  in  his  theology ;  nor  from  his  friends, 
who  have  abandoned  faith  in  him ;  nor  from  any 
1  Job  iii.  20-23. 


A   SPIRITUAL    TRAGEDY  245 

accepted  hope  in  a  future  life  which  may  redress  the 
wrongs  of  this,  for  in  his  age  there  is  no  such  hope. 
To  him,  as  to  the  men  of  his  time,  life  is  but  a 
breath,  which  man  gaspeth  out  and  then  is  gone. 

"  The  cloud  vanisheth  away,  and  is  gone, 
So  lie  that  goeth  down  to  the  grave  shall  not  come  up  again."  ^ 

What  to  believe  he  knows  not ;  only  he  knows  this, 
that  he  has  not  so  sinned  as  to  deserve  this  punish- 
ment. The  tragedy  of  his  life  is  not  that  his  pro- 
perty has  been  swept  away,  his  children  slain,  his 
health  destroyed,  his  wife  made  a  tempter,  his 
friends  a  deceitful  hope,  "  like  a  channel  of  brooks 
that  pass  away,"  leaving  but  a  dry  bed  to  taunt  the 
thirst  of  the  perishing  pilgrim.  The  tragedy  is 
this :  that  his  conception  of  life  as  a  kingdom  ruled 
over  by  a  just  God  is  shattered,  and  his  faith  in 
God  himself  as  a  God  of  justice  is  darkened  and 
at  times  well-nigh  destroyed.  The  foundation  of 
his  moral  life  —  his  faith  in  the  supremacy  of 
righteousness  —  is  imperiled,  and  he  realizes  the 
peril.  His  anguish  of  spirit  presages  that  cry  of  a 
greater  Sufferer  than  Job,  "  My  God,  my  God,  why 
hast  thou  forsaken  me  ?  "  while  he  has  not,  as  that 
Divine  Sufferer  had,  the  unconqvierable  faith,  which 
even  in  the  hour  when  he  seemed  forsaken  could 
still  cry,  "  My  God." 

The  theology  of  his  friends  is  entirely  self-con- 
sistent ;  the  only  difficulty  with  it  is  that  it  is  not 
consistent  with  the  facts  of  life.     This  theology  is 
1  Job  vii.  9. 


246     LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

put  by  Ellphaz  in  his  first  speech  of  pious  counsel 
to  Job : 

"  Bethink  thee  now ;  who  that  was  gniltless  hath  perished, 
And  where  have  the  upright  been  cut  ofF  ? 
As  I  have  seen  —  they  that  plough  iniquity, 
And  that  sow  wickedness,  reap  the  same. 
By  the  breath  of  God  they  perish, 
And  by  the  blast  of  his  anger  they  are  consumed."  ^ 

The  practical  application  follows  logically  enough, 
though  Eliphaz  leaves  Bildad  to  state  it : 

*'  Doth  God  pervert  judgment  ? 
Or  doth  the  Almighty  pervert  justice  ? 
If  thy  children  have  sinned  against  him, 

And  he  have  delivered  them  into  the  hand  of  their  transgression : 
If  thou  wouldest  seek  diligently  unto  God, 
And  make  thy  supplication  to  the  Almighty ; 
If  thou  wert  pure  and  upright ; 
Surely  now  he  would  awake  for  thee, 
And  make  the  habitation  of  thy  righteousness  prosperous. 
And  though  thy  beginning  was  small 
Yet  thy  latter  end  should  greatly  increase."  ^ 

And  when  Job  indignantly  resents  the  implication 
that  he  has  been  a  great  sinner  else  great  suffering 
would  not  have  fallen  upon  him,  his  friends  are 
quite  ready  to  invent  facts  in  order  to  sustain  their 
theory.  He  must  have  sinned  or  he  would  not 
have  been  punished  :  so  Eliphaz  concludes : 

"  Is  not  thy  wickedness  great  ? 
Neither  is  there  any  end  to  thine  iniquities. 
For  thou  hast  taken  pledges  of  thy  brother  for  nought, 
And  stripped  the  naked  of  their  clothing. 
Thou  hast  not  given  water  to  the  weary  to  drink, 

1  Job  iv.  7-9. 

2  Job  viii.  3-7. 


A   SPIRITUAL    TRAGEDY  247 

And  thou  hast  withholden  bread  from  the  hungry. 

While  the  man  of  the  strong  arm  —  his  was  the  land, 

And  the  respected  of  persons  dwelt  therein  ! 

Thou  hast  sent  widows  away  empty, 

And  the  arms  of  the  fatherless  have  been  broken. 

Therefore  snares  are  round  about  thee, 

And  sudden  fear  troubleth  thee, 

Or  darkness,  that  thou  canst  not  see, 

And  abundance  of  waters  cover  thee."  ^ 

The  argument  is  very  simple,  and  would  be  en- 
tirely adequate  if  it  were  in  accordance  with  the 
facts,  but  it  is  not ;  and  it  angers  Job,  not  because 
it  is  unjust  to  him,  but  because  it  is  false  and 
assumes  that  God  is  one  to  be  pleased  with  false- 
hood used  in  his  defense.  Job's  splendid  burst  of 
indignation  against  the  use  of  falsehood  in  defense 
of  God  is  one  of  the  most  notable  passages  in  the 
poem,  and  deserves  to  be  often  repeated  in  our 
own  time.  For  in  all  ages,  alas !  even  in  ours  also, 
ecclesiasticism  has  imagined  that  the  cause  of  reli- 
gion can  be  supported  by  falsehood,  and  that  the 
spirit  of  reverence  can  be  nurtured  by  denying  or 
concealing  from  ourselves  and  others  the  facts  of 
life.  Job  protests  against  all  such  special  pleading 
for  God : 

"  Will  ye  speak  lies  for  God, 
And  talk  deceitfully  for  him  ? 
Will  ye  show  him  favor  ? 
Will  ye  be  special  pleaders  for  God  ?  "  ^ 

But  if  the  theology  of  the  three  friends  is  simple 
and  consistent.  Job's  is  not.     In  truth  he  has  no 

1  Job  xxii.  5-11. 

2  Job  xiii.  7,  8. 


248     LIFE  AND   LITERATURE   OF   THE  HEBREWS 

theology ;  lie  has  only  experience.  This  experience 
to  which,  when  we  share  it,  we  rarely  dare  to  give 
expression,  he  utters  with  an  abandon  which  seems 
to  his  companions  profane,  and  which  to  the  modern 
reader  would  perhaps  seem  so  were  it  not  found 
in  the  Bible,  and  there  somewhat  softened  by  the 
Authorized  Version.  The  experience  of  a  soul  in 
vain  endeavoring  to  harmonize  the  apparent  injus- 
tice and  even  cruelty  of  life,  when  he  is  suffering 
from  it,  with  his  faith  in  the  justice  and  goodness 
of  God,  in  whom  he  is  struggling  to  retain  his 
faith,  is  never  consistent.  Job  recognizes  and  con- 
fesses his  own  inconsistency :  "  I  am  not  myself," 
he  cries  ;  and  this  inconsistency  he  attributes  to  the 
right  cause,  —  the  indignation  born  of  his  wretched- 
ness and  aggravated  by  the  self-complacent  counsels 
of  his  friends. 

"  Oh  that  my  indignation  were  weighed,  were  weighed, 
And  my  calamity  were  laid  in  the  balances  against  it ! 
For  now  it  would  be  heavier  than  the  sand  of  the  seas : 
Therefore  have  my  words  been  rash. 
For  the  arrows  of  the  Almighty  are  within  me, 
Whose  poison  my  spirit  drinketh  up."  ^ 

At  times  he  resents  with  bitter  scorn  their  cool 
assumption  that  he  must  be  a  sinner  above  all 
others  because  his  afflictions  are  so  great ;  at  times 
he  pleads  with  them  with  touching  pathos  to  put 
themselves  in  his  place,  and  trust  him,  their  old 
and  well  proved  friend. 

"  Now  therefore  be  pleased  to  look  upon  me  ; 
For  surely  I  shall  not  lie  to  your  face. 

1  Job  vi.  2-4. 


A   SF I  HIT  UAL    TRAGEDY  249 

Return,  I  pray  yon,  let  there  be  no  injustice 
Yea,  return  again,  my  cause  is  righteous. 
Is  there  injustice  on  my  tongue  ? 
Cannot  my  sense  discern  what  is  wrong  ?  "  ^ 

He  confesses  that  he  is  not  faultless :  — 

"  How  shall  a  man  be  just  before  God  ? 
If  one  should  desire  to  contend  with  him 
He  could  not  answer  bim  one  of  a  thousand."  ^  i 

But  he  calls  himself  "  the  just,  the  upright ; "  denies 
that  he  has  doue  anything  to  deserve  the  afflictions 
which  have  fallen  upon  him,  and  declares  that  inno- 
cence is  vain,  and  virtue  no  protection  against  the 
Almighty  and  the  Inscrutable  One. 

"  I  know  that  thou  wilt  not  hold  me  innocent. 
I  shall  be  condemned  ; 
Why  then  do  I  labor  in  vain  ? 
If  I  wash  myself  vnth  snow  water 
And  make  my  bands  never  so  clean  ; 
Yet  wilt  thou  plunge  me  in  the  ditch, 
And  mine  ow  n  clothes  shall  abhor  me."  ' 

But  he  does  not  concede  the  justice  of  this  con- 
demnation ;  he  resents  it ;  he  affirms  its  essential 
injustice ;  he  has  no  fear  of  a  Day  of  Judgment 
and  he  will  not  pretend.  On  the  contrary  he  longs 
for  it ;  and  with  the  splendid  audacity  of  self-con- 
scious virtue  he  challenges  God  to  make  known  the 
verdict  against  him,  a  challenge  which  he  repeats 
again  and  again. 

"  Is  it  good  unto  thee  that  thou  shouldest  oppress, 
That  thou  shouldest  despise  the  work  of  thine  hands, 
And  shine  upon  the  counsel  of  the  wicked  ? 

1  Job  vi.  28-30.  2  Job  ix.  2,  3. 

8  Job  ix.  28-31. 


250    LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   TEE   HEBREWS 

Hast  thou  eyes  of  flesh, 

Or  seest  thou  as  man  seeth  ? 

Are  thy  days  as  the  days  of  man, 

Or  thy  years  as  man's  days, 

That  thou  ir.quirest  after  mine  iniquity, 

And  searchest  after  my  sin, 

Although  thou  knowest  that  I  am  not  wicked ; 

And  there  is  none  that  can  deliver  out  of  thine  hand  ?  "  ^ 

And  he  insists  that  bis  experience  of  the  injustice 
of  life  is  not  peculiar.  His  friends  aver  that  virtue 
I  ,'*'  is  always  rewarded  and  sin  is  always  punished  :  they 
t^  have  described  life  as  they  think  it  ought  to  be. 
He  describes  life  as  it  is ;  and  if  it  must  be  con- 
ceded that  his  picture  is  much  too  dark,  yet  it  is 
not  darker  than  it  often  appears  to  the  soul  tried 
in  the  experience  of  an  apparently  unjust  sorrow, 
as  Job  is  tried. 

"  Wherefore  do  the  wicked  live, 
Become  old,  yea,  wax  mig-hty  in  power  ? 
Their  seed  is  established  with  them  in  their  sight, 
And  their  offspring  before  their  eyes. 
Their  houses  are  safe  from  fear, 
Neither  is  the  rod  of  God  upon  them. 
Their  bull  gendereth  and  faileth  not ; 
Their  cow  calveth  and  casteth  not  her  calf. 
They  send  forth  their  little  ones  like  a  flock, 
And  their  children  dance. 
They  sing  to  the  timbrel  and  harp. 
And  rejoice  at  the  sound  of  the  pipe. 
They  spend  their  days  in  prosperity, 
And  in  a  moment  they  go  down  to  the  grave. 
Yet  they  said  unto  God,  Depart  from  us ; 
For  we  desire  not  the  knowledge  of  thy  ways. 
"WTiat  is  the  Almighty  that  we  should  serve  him  ? 
And  what  profit  should  we  have  if  we  pray  imto  him  ?  "  * 

1  Job  X.  3-7.  "  Job  xxi.  7-15. 


A   SPIRITUAL    TRAGEDY  251 

To  the  insistence  of  his  friends  that  the  j^rosperity 
of  the  wicked  is  short-lived,  "  that  his  prosperity 
shall  not  endure,"  that 

"  The  heavens  shall  reveal  his  iniquity, 
And  earth  shall  rise  up  against  him, 
And  the  increase  of  him  shall  depart," 

Job  replies  scornfully :  — 

"  How  oft  is  it  that  the  lamp  of  the  wicked  is  put  out  ? 
That  their  destruction  cometh  upon  them  ? 
That  God  distributeth  sorrows  in  his  anger  ? 
That  they  are  as  stubble  before  the  wind 
And  as  chaff  that  the  storm  carrieth  away  ? 
Ye  say,  God  layeth  up  his  iniquity  for  his  children. 
Let  him  recompense  it  unto  the  wicked  himself,  that  he  may  feel 

it. 
Let  his  own  eyes  see  his  destruction, 
And  let  himself  drink  of  the  wrath  of  the  Almighty."  ^ 

If  Job  could  but  believe  in  immortality  he  might 
derive  some  consolation  from  such  a  belief ;  not  so 
much  because  it  would  give  him  a  reward  hereafter 
to  compensate  for  the  suffering  here,  for  Job  does 
serve  God  for  naught,  and  his  complainings  are 
less  against  the  sufferings  which  have  fallen  upon 
himself  than  against  the  revelation  of  the  injustice 
of  life  which  those  sufferings  have  brought  to  him. 
But  if  he  could  believe  in  immortality  he  might  ]  ^t, 
believe  in  divine  justice.  He  argues  with  himself ; 
tries  to  persuade  himself  of  immortality  ;  seeks  in 
nature  for  someanalj^s  is  to  furnish  such  a  hope ; 
but  with  the  result  which  generally  has  attended 
similar  endeavors :  a  hope  of  immortality  founded 

1  Job  xxi.  17-20. 


252   LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

on  an  analysis  drawn  from  nature  furnishes  but  a 
poor  support  in  time  of  actual  trial :  — 

..."  there  is  hope  of  a  tree,  if  it  be  cut  down,  that  it  will  sprout 

again 
And  that  the  tender  branch  thereof  will  not  cease. 
Though  the  root  thereof  wax  old  in  the  earth, 
And  the  stock  thereof  die  in  the  ground ; 
Yet  through  the  scent  of  water  it  will  bud, 
And  put  forth  boughs  like  a  plant. 
But  man  dieth,  and  wasteth  away  : 
Yea,  man  gaspeth  out  his  breath,  —  and  where  is  he  ? 
As  the  waters  fail  from  the  sea 
And  the  river  decayeth  and  drieth  up ; 
So  man  lieth  down  and  riseth  not ; 
Till  the  heavens  be  no  more  they  shall  not  awake, 
Nor  be  roused  out  of  their  sleep. 
Oh  that  thou  wouldest  hide  me  in  the  grave ; 
That  thou  wouldest  keep  me  secret,  untU  thy  wrath  be  past, 
That  thou  wouldest  appoint  me  a  set  time  and  remember  me  I 
If  a  man  die  shall  he  live  again  ? 
Then  all  the  days  of  my  warfare  would  I  wait, 
Till  my  release  should  come."  ^ 

Once  indeed  out  of  his  very  despair  a  hope  of  im- 
mortality is  struck  as  a  spark  by  the  blow  of  flint 
on  steel,  but  only  to  expire  as  speedily  as  such  a 
spark.  He  cannot  disbelieve  in  the  divine  justice ; 
this  life  is  not  just ;  therefore  there  must  come, 
there  will  come,  a  day  of  vindication :  — 

"  I  know  that  my  Vindicator  liveth,  — 
And  that  he  shall  stand  up  at  the  last  upon  the  earth : 
And  after  my  skin  hath  been  thus  destroyed, 
Yet  without  my  flesh  shall  I  see  God : 
Whom  I  shall  see  for  myself. 
And  mine  eyes  shall  behold  and  not  another."  ^ 

^  Job  xiv.  7-14. 

^  Job  xix.  25-27.     The  word  Redeemer  or  Vindicator  "  denotes 


A     SPIRITUAL    TRAGEDY  253 

But  this  hope,  born  of  despair,  is  but  a  momentary 
gleam,  like  a  star  shining  through  a  murky  atmos- 
phere ;  then  the  clouds  roll  up  again  and  it  is  gone. 
The  bitterness  of  Job's  experience  is  not  that 
his  theology  is  shattered  —  he  does  not  lament  its 
loss ;  nor  that  his  faith  in  immortality  is  over- 
thrown —  he  lived  before  the  age  of  faith  in  im- 
mortality and  was  learning  one  ground  of  that 
faith  in  learning  the  imperfection  and  injustice  of 
this  earthly  life,  if  this  life  is  indeed  all.  It  is  not 
even  in  the  desertion  of  him  by  his  friends  or  the 
scornful  abandonment  of  his  faith  by  his  wife.  It 
is  that  the  God  whom  he  had  believed  to  be  a  just 
God  and  a  personal  friend  has  become  in  his 
thought  a  personal  Enemy,  an  Adversary,  a  Spy 
of  Men,i  whose  justice  it  is  well-nigh  impossible 
for  him  any  longer  to  believe  in.     He  tauntingly 

the  next  of  kin  -whose  duty  it  was  to  avenge  the  blood  of  a  mur- 
dered man  (see  Numbers  xxxy.  19),  and  to  succor  the  bereaved  and 
needy  (see  Ruth  iii.  9-13  ;  iv.  1-8).  With  wonderful  skill  Job 
chooses  the  word  that  gathers  into  itself  all  that  he  has  longed 
for ;  it  means  one  who  will  befriend  him,  avenge  his  wrong,  be 
his  Daysman,  make  God  his  friend  again."  The  Epic  of  the  Inner 
Life,  by  John  F.  Genung,  p.  236,  note.  Does  it  not  rather  mean 
God  himself  ?  is  it  not  a  spiritual  reaction  from  his  skepticism 
back  into  his  fundamental  faith  in  the  righteousness  of  God  ?  A 
similar  reaction  is  illustrated  in  the  contrast  in  chapter  xxiii. 
between  verses  8,  9  and  verse  10.  The  phrase  rendered  in  the 
Authorized  Version  "  in  my  flesh  "  is  literally  "  from  my  flesh," 
and  might  mean  either  "  out  from  my  flesh  "  or  "  apart  from  my 
flesh."  The  context  clearly  demands  the  latter  rendering,  and 
"  without  my  flesh  "  is  given  by  the  Revision  in  the  margin. 

^  Job  vii.  20,   Renan's   translation.      "  Watcher  of   men  "  in 
Revised  Version. 


254     LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

challenges  God  to  produce  his  accusations ;  he 
would  meet  them  as  a  prince ;  he  would  glory  in 
them.  It  almost  seems  as  though  by  his  challenge 
he  would  provoke  the  Almighty  to  this  trial  in  the 
court  of  reason  and  of  justice  :  — 

' '  Oh  that  I  had  one  to  hear  me ! 
(Lo,  here  is  my  signature,  let  the  Almighty  answer  me.) 
And   that    I    had  the  indictment  which  mine  adversary  hath 

written ! 
Surely,  I  would  carry  it  upon  my  shoulder ; 
I  would  hind  it  unto  me  as  a  crown. 
I  would  declare  unto  him  the  number  of  my  steps  ; 
As  a  prince  would  I  go  near  unto  him."  ^ 

But  the  Almighty  keeps  silence.  Would  even  that 
he  would  reveal  himself  through  another ;  that 
some  man  would  come  in  human  experience  to  in- 
terpret the  Unknown  :  — 

"  He  is  not  a  man  like  me,  that  I  should  answer  him, 
That  we  should  come  together  in  judgment ; 
Nor  is  there  any  daysman  betwixt  us, 
That  might  lay  his  hand  upon  us  both."  ^ 

But  God  sends  no  Daysman,  no  Interpreter  ;  he 
presents  no  charges  ;  he  makes  no  revelation  ;  He 
is  the  Unknown  and  the  Unknowable,  the  Almighty 
yet  the  Inscrutable.  This  self-hiding  of  God  is 
the  gravamen  of  Job's  complaint  against  him : 

"  Oh  that  I  knew  where  I  might  find  him  ! 
That  I  might  come  even  to  his  seat  ! 
I  would  set  in  order  my  cause  before  him ; 
And  fill  my  mouth  with  arguments. 
I  would  know  the  words  which  he  woidd  answer  me  ; 
And  understand  what  he  would  say  unto  me. 

1  Job  xxxi.  35-37.  «  job  ix.  32,  33. 


A   SPIRITUAL    TRAGEDY  255 

Would  he  contend  with  me  in  the  greatness  of  his  power  ? 

Nay ;  but  surely  he  would  g-ive  heed  unto  me. 

There  the  upright  might  reason  with  liim ; 

So  should  I  be  delivered  forever  from  my  judge. 

Behold  I  go  forward,  but  he  is  not  there ; 

And  backward,  but  I  cannot  perceive  him : 

On  the  left  hand,  when  he  doth  work,  but  I  cannot  behold  him; 

And  on  the  right  hand  he  hideth  himself  that  I  cannot  see  him."  ^ 

Job  even  doubts  at  times  whether  the  case  would 
be  bettered  if  God  were  to  reveal  himself  ;  responds 
to  the  imagined  indictment  against  himself  by  an 
indictment  of  his  judge,  which  in  one  breath  he 
utters,  in  the  next  half  takes  back. 

"  Though  I  were  righteous,  yet  would  I  not  answer ; 
Must  I  make  supplication  to  mine  adversary  ? 
If  I  had  called,  and  he  had  answered  me, 
Yet  would  I  not  believe  that  he  hearkened  unto  my  voice. 
For  he  breaketh  me  with  a  tempest, 
And  multiplieth  my  wounds  without  cause. 
He  sufPereth  me  not  to  recover  my  breath, 
For  he  surfeiteth  me  with  bitternesses. 

Is  the  question  of  strength,  —  behold,  the  Mighty  One  He ! 
Of  judgment,  —  '  Who  will  set  me  a  day  ?  ' 
Were  I  righteous,  mine  own  mouth  would  condemn  me  ; 
Perfect  were  I,  yet  would  he  prove  me  perverse. 
Perfect  I  am,  —  I  value  not  my  soul  —  I  despise  my  life  — 
It  is  all  one  —  therefore  I  say, 
Perfect  and  wicked  he  consumeth  alike. 
If  the  scourge  destroyeth  suddenly, 
He  mocketh  at  the  dismay  of  the  innocent. 
The  earth  is  given  over  into  the  hands  of  the  wicked ; 
The  face  of  the  judges  he  veileth ;  — 
If  is  not  he,  who  then  is  it  ?  "  ^ 

At  length    the    passionate    indignation    of   Job 
burns  itself  out ;  his  friends  are  silenced  and  no 
1  Job  xxiii.  3-9.  2  job  iz.  15-24. 


256     LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

longer  add  fuel  to  the  flames  ;  ^  and  lie  himself 
presages  the  conclusion  to  which  the  monodrama 
eventually  conducts  the  reader.^  A  theodicy  is  im- 
possible ;  the  ways  of  God  are  not  to  be  justified 
to  man;  we  are  too  little  and  he  is  too  great  for  our 
imderstanding  of  him  ;  at  best  we  know  truth  only 
in  fragments  ;  we  are  surrounded  on  every  side  by 
the  Infinite,  and  we  can  peer  but  a  little  way  into 
its  solemn  mysteries.  Men  mine  for  the  precious 
metals  ;  where  no  bird  has  ever  flown  and  no  beast 
has  ever  made  a  pathway  for  himself,  man  discov- 
ers the  silver  and  the  gold,  and  the  precious  stones. 
So  where  no  man  has  ever  gone,  where  no  winged 
imagination  has  ever  soared,  no  human  enterprise 
has  ever  explored  a  way,  is  wisdom  hidden :  God 
alone  knows  its  hiding  place. 

^  It  does  not  come  -within  the  province  of  this  chapter  to  con- 
sider the  question  whether  the  speech  of  Elihu  (chapters  xxxii.- 
xxxvii.)  is  an  interpolation  or  not.  Froude  summarizes  well  the 
arguments  in  the  affirmative  (Short  Studies,  vol.  i.  p.  257,  note)  ; 
Genung  the  arguments  in  the  negative  {The  Epic  of  the  Inner  Life, 
p.  78,  note).  In  either  case,  as  Genung  says,  it  "  presents  the 
friends'  side  of  the  question  freed  from  the  heats  and  disturbances 
of  the  controversy,  and  brought  to  its  best  expression,"  and  there- 
fore it  may  be  omitted  from  further  consideration  here. 

2  Professor  Moulton  puts  the  passage  paralleling  the  miner's 
search  for  gold  with  the  philosopher's  search  for  wisdom  into  the 
mouth  of  Zophar.  The  Modern  Reader^ s  Bible.  There  is  admit- 
tedly some  difficulty  in  the  text,  and  it  seems  not  improbable  that 
chapter  xxvii.  8-2.3  was  uttered  by  Zophar,  not  by  Job,  since  it 
agrees  with  the  general  position  of  tlie  three  friends  and  disagrees 
with  that  insisted  on  by  Job.  But  chapter  xxviii.  anticiijates  the 
conclusion  of  the  whole  poem,  and  clearly  in  its  spirit  belongs 
rather  to  Job,  to  whom  life  is  a  profound  mystery,  than  to  the 
three  friends,  who  can  see  no  mystery  in  it. 


A   SPIRITUAL    TRAGEDY  257 

"  Surely,  there  is  a  mine  for  silver 
And  a  place  for  gold  -whieh  they  refine. 
Iron  is  taken  out  of  the  earth, 
And  hrass  is  molten  out  of  the  stone. 


That  path  no  bird  of  prey  knoweth, 

Neither  hath  the  falcon's  eye  seen  it ; 

The  proud  beasts  have  not  trodden  it, 

Nor  hath  the  fierce  lion  passed  thereby. 

He  putteth  forth  his  hand  upon  the  flinty  rock  ; 

He  overturneth  the  mountains  by  the  roots. 

He  cutteth  out  channels  among  the  rocks  ; 

And  his  eye  seeth  every  precious  thing. 

He  bindeth  the  streams  that  they  trickle  not ; 

And  the  thing  that  is  hid  bringeth  he  forth  to  light. 

But  Wisdom  —  where  shall  it  be  found  ? 

And  where  is  the  place  of  understanding  ? 

Man  knoweth  not  the  price  tliereof  ; 

Neither  is  it  found  in  the  land  of  the  living. 

The  deep  saith.  It  is  not  in  me  ; 

And  the  sea  saith,  It  is  not  with  me. 

God  understandeth  the  way  thereof. 

And  he  knoweth  the  place  thereof, 

For  he  looketh  to  the  ends  of  the  earth, 

And  seeth  under  the  whole  heaven  ; 

To  make  a  weight  for  the  wind  ; 

Yea,  he  meteth  out  the  waters  by  measure, 

When  he  made  a  decree  for  the  rain, 

And  a  way  for  the  lightning  of  the  thunder ; 

Then  did  he  see  it  and  declare  it : 

He  established  it,  yea,  and  searched  it  out. 

And  unto  man  he  said. 

Behold,  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  that  is  Wisdom ; 

And  to  depart  from  evil  is  understanding."  ^ 

This   is  the  conclusion  to  which  the  author  of 
Ecclesiastes  comes  ;  it  is  the  final  and  only  con- 

1  Job  xsrviii.  1-28. 


5 


258     LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

elusion  of  the  Wisdom  Literature  of  the  Ancient 
Hebrews ;  the  conclusion  of  a  consecrated  and  de- 
vout agnosticism.  It  recalls  also  the  conclusion  of 
Paul,  the  Christian  analogue  of  the  Ancient  He- 
brew wise  man  :  "  Now  we  see  truth  as  in  a  mirror 
in  enigmatical  reflections,  but  then  face  to  face ; 
now  I  know  only  from  fragments,  then  shall  I 
know  thoroughly,  even  also  as  I  am  known.  But 
even  as  things  are,  there  abide  faith,  hope,  love,  — 
these  three.  But  the  greatest  of  these  is  love."  ^ 
And  when  at  the  close  of  this  monodrama  God 
answers  Job  and  his  friends  out  of  the  whirlwind, 
this  is  the  conclusion  which  he  impresses  upon 
them :  Nature  is  full  of  mystery  ;  wonder  not  at 
moral  mysteries  in  life.  This  is  the  substance  of 
Jehovah's  reply  to  Job  and  his  friends :  — 

"  I  will  ask  thee  ;  and  inform  me  thou. 
Where  wast  thou  when  I  laid  the  foundations  of  the  earth  ? 
Declare  if  by  knowledge  thon  understandest. 

Hast  thou  comprehended  the  breadths  of  the  earth  ? 
Tell  if  thou  knowest  it  all. 

Hast  thou  visited  the  treasuries  of  the  snow  ? 
And  the  treasuries  of  hail  hast  thou  seen  them,  — 
Which  I  have  reserved  for  the  day  of  distress  ? 

Wilt  thou  even  disannul  my  right  ? 

Wilt  thou  condemn  me,  that  thou  mayest  be  justified  ?  "  ^ 

1  1  Cor.  xiii.  12,  13. 

2  Job  xxxviii.  3,  4,  18,  22,  24  ;  xl.  8.  John  Owen  sums  up  the 
argument  very  effectively  :  "  If  it  be  granted  that  all  the  opera- 
tions of  nature  and  creation  which  man  sees  about  him  are  inexpli- 
cable, may  not  a  similar  unsearchableness,  ex  natura  rerum,  per- 


A  SPIRITUAL    TRAGEDY  259 

To  attempt  to  epitomize  the  sublime  chajjters 
which  close  this  poem  and  in  which  this  lesson  is 
illustrated  and  enforced  would  be  hopeless.  The 
reader  must  turn  to  his  Revised  Version  of  the 
Bible  and  read  these  chapters  for  himself.  Let 
him  not,  however,  fail  to  note  that  God  condemns 
the  three  friends  whose  sophisticated  arguments 
have  falsified  the  facts  of  life  in  their  special  plead- 
ing for  him,  —  rather  let  us  say  for  their  own  the- 
ology which  they  have  confounded  with  him,  — 
and  commends  Job  in  spite  of  his  apparently  auda- 
cious irreverence.  The  poet  does  not  leave  us  in 
doubt  whether  his  sympathies  are  with  Job  or  with 
his  three  friends. 

"  Jehovah  said  to  Eliphaz  the  Temanite,  My  wrath  is 
kindled  against  thee,  and  against  thy  two  friends  :  for 
ye  have  not  spoken  of  me  the  thing  that  is  right  as  my 
servant  Job  hath."  ^ 

The  epilogue,  in  which  seven  sons  and  three 
daughters  were  restored  to  Job  as  though  they 
were  raised  from  the  dead,  and  in  which  all  his 
property  is  doubled,  does  not  here  concern  us,  ex- 
cept that  it  constitutes  a  conclusive  demonstration 
that  in  this  book  we  have  presented  to  us  a  drama, 
not  a  history. 

tain  to  God's  dealings  with  men  ?  If  Job  cannot  see  whence  conies 
the  rain  or  determine  beforehand  the  path  of  the  lightning,  may 
not  a  similar  inability  extend  to  others  of  the  divine  operations 
in  which  man's  welfare  is  more  especially  concerned  ?  "  Five 
Great  Skeptical  Dramas,  p.  154.  Mr.  Owen's  entire  treatment  of 
Job,  and  especially  his  comparison  of  it  with  the  Prometheus 
Bound,  is  very  suggestive. 
1  Job  xlii.  7. 


260   LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

There  is  a  philosophy  called  Utilitarianism  :  the 
popular  though  crude  expression  of  which  is  found 
in  the  phrase,  Be  virtuous  and  you  will  be  happy. 
The  Book  of  Job  brings  this  philosophy  to  the  test 
of  life  :  he  is  virtuous  and  he  is  not  happy.  There 
is  a  philosophy  called  Naturalism  :  it  assumes  that 
neither  is  there  any  divine  revelation  nor  any  need 
of  one.  The  Book  of  Job  brings  this  philosophy 
to  the  test  of  life  :  in  sorrow  the  light  of  nature 
proves  to  be  a  great  darkness.  There  is  a  philoso- 
phy called  Agnosticism  :  it  assumes  that  God  and 
the  future  life  must  remain  forever  unknown  to  us. 
The  Book  of  Job  does  not  answer  this  philosophy  ; 
but  it  interprets  the  anguish  of  the  soul  in  this 
ignorance  by  the  cry,  "  Oh  that  I  knew  where  I 
might  find  him !  "  Centuries  must  pass  before  the 
Great  Unknown  of  the  captivity  will  bring  his 
message  to  Israel  that  only  by  the  Suffering  Ser- 
vant of  Jehovah  can  Israel  be  saved  ;  more  centu- 
ries, before  the  Nazarene  will  take  up  his  cross  and 
bid  his  followers  take  up  theirs  and  enter  into 
glory  through  crucifixion  ;  before  his  great  Apostle 
will  declare  that  he  glories  in  tribulation  also  ;  be- 
fore his  beloved  disciple  will  give  the  world  the 
vision  of  the  saints  of  God  redeemed  and  redeem- 
ing by  means  of  great  tribulation  ;  and  many  more 
centuries,  it  seems,  must  pass  before  the  world  can 
understand  the  lesson,  learned  so  slowly  and  with 
such  difficulty,  that  suffering  is  not  punitive  but  re- 
demptive. "  In  the  world,"  said  Chi-ist,  "3^e  shall 
have  tribulation :    but  be  of  good  cheer ;    I  have 


A   SPIRITUAL    TRAGEDY  2G1 

overcome  the  world."  ^  In  the  book  of  Job  we  see 
the  tribulation  of  an  honest  heart  uncheered  by 
this  promise  of  victory.  "  I  am  persuaded,"  said 
Paid,  "  that  neither  death,  nor  life,  nor  angels,  nor 
principalities,  nor  things  present,  nor  things  to 
come,  nor  powers,  nor  height,  nor  depth,  nor  any 
other  created  thing,  shall  be  able  to  separate  me 
from  the  love  of  God  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  our 
Lord."  2  In  the  Book  of  Job  we  see  the  devout 
and  honest  soul  struggling  to  hold  fast  to  the  love 
of  God  which  life  is  trying  to  wrest  from  him,  and 
which  has  not  been  authenticated  to  him  by  the 
love  and  life  and  death  of  Jesus  Christ. 

For  in  the  Book  of  Job  the  problem  of  the  ages 
is  portrayed  in  microcosm ;  the  problem  of  suffer- 
ing as  it  has  presented  itself  in  all  ages  to  sincere 
souls,  conscious  of  their  innocence  and  not  con- 
scious of  that  call  to  service  through  sacrifice 
which  the  life  and  passion  of  Jesus  Christ  has 
made  vocal  to  all  the  world.  In  this  ancient 
drama  the  spiritual  tragedy  of  all  the  ages  is  inter- 
preted. In  it  is  the  audacious  challenge  to  life  of 
a  William  Ernest  Henley :  — 

"  In  the  fell  clutch  of  circumstance 
I  have  not  ■winced  nor  cried  aloud ; 
Under  the  hludgeoninys  of  chance 
My  head  is  bloody,  but  unbowed."  ^ 

In  it  is  the  pathetic  counter-pleading  against  life 
of  a  Matthew  Arnold  :  — 

1  John  xvi.  33.  2  Rom.  viii.  38, 39. 

*  Life  and  Death  (Echoes),  iv. 


262     LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

"  Let  U3  be  true 
To  one  another !  for  the  world,  which  seems 
To  lie  before  us  like  a  land  of  dreams, 
So  various,  so  beautiful,  so  new, 
Hath  really  neither  joy,  nor  love,  nor  light, 
Nor  certitude,  nor  peace,  nor  help  for  pain  ; 
And  we  are  here  as  on  a  darkling  plain 
Swept  with  confused  alarms  of  struggle  and  flight, 
Where  ignorant  armies  clash  by  night."  ^ 

And  by  it  we  are  conducted  to  the  conclusion  of 
Alfred  Tennyson :  — 

"  Our  little  systems  have  their  day ; 

They  have  their  day  and  cease  to  be  : 
They  are  but  broken  lights  of  thee, 
And  thou,  0  Lord,  art  more  than  they. 

"  We  have  but  faith  :  we  cannot  know  ; 
For  knowledge  is  of  things  we  see  ; 
And  yet  we  trust  it  comes  from  thee, 
A  beam  in  darkness  :  let  it  grow."  ^ 

"  We  cannot  know :  "  this  is  the  conclusion  of  the 
Book  of  Job  ;  let  us  be  humble  and  patient,  do  our 
duty,  be  true  to  one  another,  and  wait  for  the  solu- 
tion of  life's  mystery.  Let  us  realize  that  charac- 
ter, not  happiness,  is  the  end  of  life,  and  that  if  we 
do  not  serve  God  for  naught  we  do  not  serve  him 
at  all.  Let  us  not  aggravate  the  sufferings  of  life 
by  predicating  their  injustice  ;  nor  sacrifice  our 
loyalty  to  truth  in  our  endeavor  to  prove  that  loy- 
alty to  God  is  reasonable. 

1  Dover  Beach ;  Poems,  211. 

2  In  Memoriarn. 


CHAPTER  XI 

A   SCHOOL   OF   ETHICAL   PHILOSOPHY  —  I 

Moral  teachers  may  be  divided  into  three 
classes,  which  may  be  respectively  termed  the  em- 
pirical, the  legal,  and  the  prophetic.  The  empirical 
teacher  observes  life,  and  from  his  observations  de- 
duces certain  moral  maxims.  He  perceives  that  cer- 
tain courses  of  conduct  produce  happiness,  —  these 
he  calls  right ;  certain  other  courses  of  conduct  pro- 
duce pain,  —  these  he  calls  wrong.  He  measures 
conduct  by  its  results,  and  deduces  the  principles 
of  moral  action  from  his  observation  of  such  results. 
These  principles  find  their  most  common  and  popu- 
lar expression  in  such  maxims  as  "  Honesty  is  the 
best  policy  ;  "  they  are  based  upon  experience  and 
observation  ;  they  are  often,  though  by  no  means 
always,  purely  prudential ;  they  are  more  apt  to  be 
rules  than  principles ;  and  they  constitute  rather  a 
series  of  practical  maxims  than  a  system  of  theo- 
retical ethics.  The  legalist  is  not  content  with 
these  results.  He  carries  his  researches  further, 
or  thinks  that  he  does  so.  From  his  observation 
and  experience,  he  deduces  certain  laws  of  life,  or 
he  accepts  such  laws  as  promulgated  by  some  au- 
thority, human  or  divine.     These  laws  of  life  some- 


264     LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

times  derive  their  authority  solely  from  observation 
of  their  results ;  sometimes  added  authority  is  given 
to  them  by  their  promulgation  by  the  Church  or 
the  State ;  often  it  is  maintained  that  they  are  de- 
rived directly  or  indirectly  from  God  or  the  gods, 
in  which  case  the  supi'eme  authority  of  a  divine 
lawgiver  is  claimed  for  them.  Virtue  consists,  ac- 
cording to  this  school,  in  obedience  to  law,  human 
or  divine ;  and  this  obedience  is  to  be  rendered 
regardless  of  possible  or  probable  results ;  for 
virtue  consists  in  doing  what  is  commanded,  not  in 
doing  merely  what  appears  to  be  beneficial.  The 
prophetic  teacher  is  not  satisfied  to  stop  with  the 
discovery  of  a  law,  whether  that  law  is  human  or 
divine.  He  asks.  Why  has  this  law  been  promul- 
gated ?  why  has  the  Church  or  the  State  forbidden 
or  commanded  ?  why  has  God  forbidden  or  com- 
manded? And  his  reply  to  this  inquiry  is  not 
derived  from  any  observation  of  the  effects  of  obe- 
dience or  disobedience.  Virtue  he  regards  not  as 
a  means  to  happiness  as  an  end  ;  it  is  itself  the  end. 
It  is  to  be  pursued  whether  it  is  commanded  or 
forbidden  ;  whether  it  produces  pleasure  or  pain. 
The  prophetic  teacher  does  not  think  that  certain 
conduct  is  righteous  because  it  produces  happiness, 
though  he  believes  that  generally  happiness  follows 
from  virtue ;  he  does  not  think  that  it  is  righteous 
because  it  is  commanded,  but  that  it  is  commanded 
because  it  is  righteous.  Law  he  regards  as  inher- 
ent in  the  nature :  the  laws  of  the  material  universe 
are  the  nature  of  matter  and  force  :  the  laws  of 


A   SCHOOL    OF   ETHICAL   PniLOSOPHY        265 

health  are  the  nature  of  the  body ;  the  laws  of  God 
are  the  nature  of  God  ;  and  these  are  also  the  laws 
of  man  because  man  is  made  in  the  image  of  God. 
The  authority  of  law  is  from  within  ;  law  is  inher- 
ent, eternal,  immutable.  God  is  righteous  and  his 
commands  are  righteous,  but  righteousness  is  not 
created  by  the  commands  which  define  and  inter- 
pret it ;  the  careful  observation  of  life  confirms  the 
practical  wisdom  of  righteousness  in  all  its  various 
applications,  but  righteousness  does  not  depend  on 
the  results  which  proceed  from  it.  The  author  of 
the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  has  given  an  ancient 
prophet's  utterance  of  this  view  in  the  phrase  "  it 
is  impossible  for  God  to  lie."  F.  W.  Faber  has 
given  a  modern  prophet's  utterance  of  it  in  the 
verse,  — 

"  For  right  is  right,  since  God  is  God ; 
And  right  the  day  must  win  : 
To  doiiht  would  be  disloyalty, 
To  falter  would  be  sin." 

The  moralists  of  the  eighteenth  century  and  the 
stoics  of  the  first  century  may  be  regarded  as  a 
type  of  the  first  school ;  the  Puritans  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  and  the  nobler  spirits  among  the 
Pharisees  of  the  first  century  may  be  regarded  as 
a  type  of  the  second  ;  the  mystics  of  all  ages  and 
the  Hebrew  prophets  of  the  period  before  and 
during  the  exile  may  be  regarded  as  a  t}^e  of  the 
third. 

Often  these  schools  ai'e  critical  of  and  antago- 
nistic to  each  other.     The  empiric  condemns  the 


266  LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

legalist  as  dogmatic,  and  the  prophet  as  vague  and 
mystical ;  the  legalist  condemns  the  empiric  as  un- 
authoritative and  unscientific,  and  the  prophet  as 
unauthoritative  and  mystical ;  and  the  prophetic 
teacher  condemns  the  empiric  as  one  who  substi- 
tutes prudence  for  virtue,  and  the  legalist  as  one 
who  substitutes  the  obedience  of  fear  for  the  spon- 
taneous life  of  love.  Yet  they  are  not  necessarily 
antagonistic  except  as  they  are  made  mutually  ex- 
clusive. The  religious  teacher  may  believe  with 
the  prophet  that  righteousness  is  inherent  in  the 
nature  of  God ;  with  the  legalist  that  law  is  more 
than  a  principle,  it  is  also  the  expression  of  the 
righteous  will  of  a  righteous  God  ;  and  with  the 
empiric  that  the  observation  and  experience  of  life 
interpret  and  confirm  the  intuitive  moral  percep- 
tion of  these  divine  embodiments  of  this  eternal 
principle.  The  greatest  teachers  combine  the  three 
methods  of  ascertaining,  interpreting,  and  confirm- 
ing moral  truth.  When  in  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  Christ  gives  to  his  disciples  the  counsel, 
"  Agree  with  thine  adversary  quickly  whiles  thou 
art  in  the  way  with  him ;  lest  at  any  time  the 
adversary  deliver  thee  to  the  judge  and  the  judge 
deliver  thee  to  the  officer,  and  thou  be  cast  into 
prison,"  he  commends  the  pacific  disposition  by  a 
purely  prudential  motive  derived  from  an  observa- 
tion of  the  facts  of  life  ;  ^  when  he  says :  "  I  say 

^  "  Lest  the  adversary  deliver  thee  to  the  judge."  "  This  part 
is  explained  by  some  in  a  metaphorical  sense,  that  the  Heavenly 
Judge  will  act  toward  us  with  the  utmost  rigor,  so  as  to  forgive 


A  SCHOOL    OF  ETHICAL  PHILOSOPHY       267 

unto  you,  "  Swear  not  at  all ;  neither  by  heaven,  for 
it  is  God's  throne ;  nor  by  the  earth,  for  it  is  his 
footstool ;  neither  by  Jerusalem,  for  it  is  the  city 
of  the  Great  King,"  he  promulgates  a  definite  law, 
and  bases  it  not  on  the  experience  of  life,  but  on 
the  authority  of  the  conscience  and  the  reason  in- 
terpreting the  laws  of  God;  and  when  he  says, 
"  Love  your  enemies,  bless  them  that  cui^se  you,  do 
good  to  them  that  hate  you,  and  pray  for  them  that 
despitef  ully  use  you  and  persecute  you,  that  ye  may 
be  the  children  of  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven," 
he  enunciates  a  divine  principle  of  righteousness 
which  inheres  in  the  nature  of  God,  and  of  man  as 
the  child  of  God,  made  in  God's  image,  dependent 
for  its  authority  neither  on  the  results  which  it 
produces,  nor  on  the  will  of  the  lawgiver  who  for- 
mulates it,  but  on  its  own  inherent,  eternal,  abso- 
lute rightfulness. 

All  three  of  these  voices,  that  of  the  empiric, 
that  of  the  legalist,  and  that  of  the  prophet  or  in- 
tuitionalist,  are  found  in  the  Old  Testament.  The 
Book  of  Job  may  be  taken  as  the  voice  of  the 
prophet.  Job  will  pay  no  reverence  to  Jehovah  if 
Jehovah  be  not  righteous.  Righteousness  of  char- 
acter, that  is,  conformity  to  the  eternal  principles 

us  nothing,  if  we  do  not  labor  to  settle  tliose  differences  •which 
we  have  with  our  neighbors.  But  I  view  it  more  simply,  as 
an  admonition  that,  even  among  men,  it  is  usually  advantageous 
for  us  to  come  to  an  early  agreement  with  adversaries,  because, 
with  quarrelsome  persons,  their  obstinacy  often  costs  them  dear.'' 
Commentary  on  a  Harmony  of  the  Evangelists,  Matthew,  Mark,  and 
Luke,  by  John  Calvin,  vol.  i.  p.  288. 


268      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

of  justice,  is  tlie  only  ground  of  authority  which 
he  will  recognize.  The  Hebrew  code  may  be  re- 
garded as  the  voice  of  the  legalist :  its  message  is 
summed  up  in  the  words,  "  If  ye  will  obey  my  voice 
and  keep  my  covenant,  then  shall  ye  be  a  peculiar 
treasure  unto  me  above  all  people :  "  all  virtue  is 
summed  up  in  obedience  to  a  supreme,  a  divine 
King.  The  voice  of  the  empiric,  who  derives 
moral  maxims  from  an  observation  of  life,  and 
commends  them  by  their  practical  results  as  seen 
in  life,  is  chiefly  interpreted  in  two  books,  —  the 
Book  of  Proverbs  and  the  Book  of  Ecclesiastes. 
As  the  Levitical  code  is  the  expression  of  the  re- 
ligious life  as  interpreted  by  the  priesthood  ;  as 
the  Deuteronomic  code  is  the  expression  of  that 
life  as  interpreted  by  the  statesmen  ;  as  the  Book 
of  Psalms  is  the  expression  of  that  life  as  inter- 
preted by  the  lyric  poets ;  as  the  Books  of  Amos, 
Hosea,  Micah,  and  Isaiah  are  perhaps  the  sublim- 
est  expression  of  that  life  as  interpreted  by  the  in- 
tuitionalists  or  prophets,  so  the  Books  of  Proverbs 
and  of  Ecclesiastes  are  the  expression  of  that  life 
as  interpreted  by  the  Wise  Men.^  These  Wise 
Men  constituted  no  order,  as  did  the  priests  ;  they 
did  not  profess  to  have  received  a  special  divine 
call,  as  did  the  prophets ;  rarely  if  ever  do  they 
claim  to  speak  in  the  name  or  on  behalf  of  Jeho- 
vah ;  but  they  did  constitute  an  unorganized  and 

^  For  an  excellent  account  of  this  school  see  The  Wise  Men  of 
Ancient  Israel  and  their  Proverbs,  by  C.  T.  Kent,  Ph.  D.,  pp.  17- 
31. 


A   SCHOOL    OF  ETHICAL  PHILOSOPHY       269 

undefined  school  of  thought ;  their  analogue  in  our 
times  is  to  be  found  in  the  equally  inorganic  School 
of  Ethical  Culture. 

Proverbs  are  the  coined  experience  of  a  people. 
The  maker  of  a  proverb  is  not  one  who  has  seen 
deeply  into  the  inward  nature  of  things ;  he  is 
not  a  poet,  nor  one  who  has  a  clear  apprehension 
of  great  laws  ;  he  is  not  a  philosopher  :  the  maker 
of  a  proverb  is  one  who  has  a  keen-  observation  of 
the  actual  phenomena  of  life,  and  has  been  able  to 
put  the  result  of  his  observation  into  a  single  sen- 
tence so  that  it  flashes  light  like  a  diamond.  The 
Book  of  Proverbs  is  the  experience  of  the  Hebrew 
people  coined  into  current  aphorisms  by  men  of 
native  wit.  These  proverbs  are  not  written  by 
men  of  remarkable  spiritual  vision  ;  nor  by  men 
notable  for  their  clear  vision  of  great  laws,  whether 
discovered  by  philosophical  inquiry  or  divinely  re- 
vealed ;  they  are  aphorisms  which  have  been  struck 
out  of  human  experience  by  the  attrition  of  life, 
have  received  concise  interpretation  in  compact 
sentences,  and  have  passed  current  among  the  peo- 
ple. Such  a  book  can  have  no  author  ;  rather  it 
has  many  authors,  though  it  may  have  one  editor. 
No  man  can  with  deliberate  purpose  sit  down  to 
write  proverbs.  One  man  once  made  the  endeavor, 
but  since  Martin  Farquar  Tupper's  "Proverbial 
Philosophy  "  no  man  has  repeated  the  experiment. 
The  book  is  called  in  our  Bible  "  The  Proverbs  of 
Solomon,"  not  because  he  wrote  them,  nor  because 
he  gathered  them  together,  but  because  he  was  one 


270      LIFE  AND   LITERATURE   OF   THE  HEBREWS 

of  the  first  men  of  the  Hebrew  nation  to  take  this 
utilitarian,  this  prudential,  this  ethical-culture  view 
of  life  and  put  it  into  proverbs.  He  was  perhaps 
the  very  first ;  others,  inspired  by  his  thinking, 
produced  other  proverbs  ;  these  were  from  time  to 
time  gathered  into  various  collections,  and  these 
various  collections  were  finally  brought  together 
in  the  general  collection  now  known  as  the  Book 
of  Proverbs. 

There  is  therefore  in  this  book  no  unity.^  It  is 
simply  a  collection  of  aphorisms  which  have  been 
formulated  by  the  wise  moralists  among  the  He- 
brews and  which  have  passed  current  in  the  Plebrew 
nation.  This  character  of  the  book  is  indicated 
by  its  title-page  :  — 

"  The  proverbs  of  Solomon,  the  son  of  David,  king  of 
Israel ;  To  know  wisdom  and  instruction  ;  to  perceive 
the  words  of  imderstanding  ;  To  receive  the  insti'uction 
of  wisdom,  justice,  and  judgment,  and  equity  ;  To  give 
subtilty  to  the  simple,  to  the  young  man  knowledge 
and  discretion.  A  wise  man  -will  hear,  and  -will  increase 
learning ;  and  a  man  of  understanding  shall  attain  unto 
wise  counsels  ;  To  understand  a  proverb,  and  the  inter- 
pretation :  the  words  of  the  wise,  and  their  dark  say- 
ings." ^ 

^  For  an  admirable  presentation  of  the  Proverbs  as  collections 
of  collections  and  in  their  different  literary  form  as  sonnets,  riddles, 
separate  aphorisms,  etc.,  see  The  Modern  Reader''s  Bible :  The 
Proverbs,  by  R.  G.  Moulton.  For  an  elaborate  interpretation  of 
the  book  from  the  other  point  of  view,  as  spiritual  and  pro- 
phetic, and  in  a  sense  Messianic,  see  A  Commentary  on  the  Pro- 
verbs with  a  New  Translation,  by  John  Miller. 

2  Prov.  i.  1-6. 


A  SCHOOL    OF  ETHICAL  PHILOSOPHY       271 

Here  is  not  a  word  said  about  the  law  of  God,  nor 
about  revelation  from  him.  The  object  of  the 
book  is  simply  to  give  practical  wisdom  by  giving 
practical  understanding  of  the  experiences  of  life. 
As  such  it  is  to  be  read. 

We  are  not,  then,  to  look  in  the  Book  of  Proverbs 
for  a  system  of  philosophy  or  theology.  Theology 
is  the  science  of  religion,  and  the  Book  of  Proverbs 
is  not  scientific.  It  contains  no  religious  creed, 
and  nothing  suggesting  one ;  no  ethical  system  and 
no  hint  that  any  such  system  was  in  the  mind  of 
the  authors  or  the  editor.  It  contains  no  hint  of 
what  are  called  the  great  doctrines  of  Christianity, 
such  as  trinity,  revelation,  inspiration,  divine  sov- 
ereignty, and  the  like  ;  no  systematic  counsels  for 
the  conduct  of  life,  such  as  we  find  in  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount.  Separated  instructions,  fragments 
of  wisdom,  coined  results  of  experience,  —  these  are 
what  ai'e  presented,  and  without  system,  deliber- 
ately and  intentionally  without  system.  The  book 
never  refers  to  Israel  as  the  chosen  people  of  God ; 
contains  no  suggestion  of  a  coming  Messiah,  —  the 
great  hope  of  Israel ;  and  no  revelation  of  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul.  It  contains  five  incidental  re- 
ferences to  sacrifices  ;  ^  but  none  to  Temple  or  Tab- 
ernacle or  priesthood  or  Levitical  code  ;  and  none 
to  the  Mosaic  moral  code.  Its  reference  to  the  law 
is  to  the  moral  law  as  interpreted  by  the  reason 
and  the  conscience ;  its  sanctions  are  in  the  main 
found,  not  in  any  supreme  obligation  to  obey 
^  Prov.  Yii.  14 ;  xv.  8 ;  xvii.  1 ;  xxi.  3,  27. 


272      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

Jehovali,  but  in  the  consequences  which  follow  in 
this  life,  upon  obedience  and  disobedience,  that  is, 
upon  temporal  and  prudential  considerations. 

The  contrast  between  the  prophetic  and  the  pro- 
verbial method  in  the  treatment  of  life  is  brought 
out  clearly  by  the  contrast  between  two  poems 
covering  the  same  ground,  —  one  in  the  Book  of 
Psalms,  the  other  in  the  Book  of  Proverbs,  They 
might  well  be  given  the  same  title,  "  The  Two 
Paths."  The  poet's  description  of  the  two  paths 
in  the  First  Psalm  is  as  follows  :  — 

"  Blessed  is  the  man  that  walketh  not  in  the  counsel  of  the  wicked, 
Nor  standeth  in  the  way  of  sinners, 
Nor  sitteth  in  the  seat  of  the  scornful. 
But  his  delight  is  in  the  law  of  the  Lord  ; 
And  in  his  law  doth  he  meditate  day  and  night. 
And  he  shall  he  like  a  tree  planted  by  the  streams  of  ■water, 
That  hringeth  forth  its  fruit  in  its  season, 
Whose  leaf  also  doth  not  wither ; 
And  whatsoever  he  doeth  shall  prosper. 
The  wicked  are  not  so  ; 

But  are  like  the  chaff  which  the  wind  driveth  away. 
Therefore  the  wicked  shall  not  stand  in  the  judgment, 
Nor  sinners  in  the  congregation  of  the  righteous. 
For  the  Lord  knoweth  the  way  of  the  righteous : 
But  the  way  of  the  wicked  shall  perish." 

That  is  a  poet's  interpretation  of  life,  figurative  in 
phraseology,  ideal  in  spirit,  written  by  one  whose 
conception  of  life  is  derived  from  his  conception  of 
what  life  ought  to  be  because  his  faith  in  a  just 
God  makes  him  sure  that  what  ought  to  be  will  be. 
The  other  poem  on  the  two  paths,  in  the  fourth 
chapter  of  Proverbs  beginning  at  the  tenth  verse, 
reads  as  follows  :  — 


A  SCHOOL    OF  ETHICAL  PHILOSOPHY        273 

"  Hear,  0  my  son,  and  receive  my  sayings ; 
And  the  years  of  thy  life  shall  be  many. 
I  have  taught  thee  in  the  way  of  wisdom  ; 
I  have  led  thee  in  paths  of  uprightness. 
When  thou  goest,  thy  steps  shall  not  be  straitened  ; 
And  if  thou  runnest,  thou  shalt  not  stumble. 
Take  fast  hold  of  instruction  ;  let  her  not  go : 
Keep  her  ;  for  she  is  thy  life. 
Enter  not  into  the  path  of  the  wicked, 
And  walk  not  in  the  way  of  evil  men. 
Avoid  it,  pass  not  by  it ; 
Turn  from  it,  and  pass  on. 

For  they  sleep  not,  except  they  have  done  mischief  ; 
And  their  sleep  is  taken  away,  unless  they  cause  some  to  fall, 
For  they  eat  the  bread  of  wickedness, 
And  drink  the  wine  of  violence. 

But  the  path  of  the  righteous  is  as  the  shining  light, 
That  shineth  more  and  more  unto  the  perfect  day. 
The  way  of  the  wicked  is  as  darkness  : 
They  know  not  at  what  they  stumble." 

Here  there  is  no  figurative  language :  no  tree 
growing  beside  the  still  waters,  no  leaf  not  wither- 
ing, no  chaff  blown  away  by  the  wind  ;  all  is  plain, 
simple,  prosaic,  —  a  description  of  life  as  the  au- 
thor has  actually  seen  it. 

This  view  of  the  Book  of  Proverbs  is  important, 
because  a  very  different  interpretation  has  often 
been  given  to  the  book,  and  a  misunderstanding 
has  resulted  therefrom.  Men  have  taken  this  book 
as  though  it  were  written  by  prophets  ;  as  though 
it  contained  a  system  of  theology  ;  as  though  it 
even  embodied  a  prophetic  revelation  of  the  hiw 
and  the  Gospels  of  the  New  Testament ;  instead 
of  being  what  it  is,  simplj''  a  mirror  held  up  to 
human  life.     Many  readei's    will   probably  recall 


274      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

sermons  preached  upon  the  following  passage  as 
though  it  were  a  portraiture  of  God's  treatment  of 
the  too-late  repentant  sinner  :  — 

"  How  long,  ye  simple  ones,  will  ye  love  simplicity  ? 
And  scorners  delight  them  in  scorning, 
And  fools  hate  knowledge  ? 
Turn  you  at  my  reproof  : 
Behold,  I  will  pour  out  my  spirit  unto  yon, 
I  will  make  known  my  words  unto  you. 
Because  I  have  called,  and  ye  refused ; 
I  have  stretched  out  my  hand,  and  no  man  regarded ; 
But  ye  have  set  at  nought  all  my  counsel. 
And  would  none  of  my  reproof  : 
I  also  will  laugh  in  the  day  of  your  calamity ; 
I  will  mock  when  your  fear  eometh  ; 
When  your  fear  eometh  as  a  storm. 
And  your  calamity  eometh  on  as  a  whirlwind ; 
When  distress  and  anguish  come  upon  you. 
Then  shall  they  call  upon  me,  hut  I  will  not  answer ; 
They  shall  seek  me  diligently,  hut  they  shall  not  find  me.  "  ^ 

Who  is  speaking  ?  Jehovah  ?  The  God  who 
sent  his  own  Son  into  the  world  that  he  might  save 
men  who  rejected  him  ?  The  God  depicted  in  the 
parable  of  the  prodigal  son  as  coming  forth  to 
meet  the  boy  who  has  thrown  away  his  life,  and  by 
ungrudging  mercy  to  bring  him  back  to  manhood 
again  ?  Is  it  this  Father  who  says,  "  I  will  laugh 
at  their  calamity,  .  .  .  they  shall  call  upon  me,  but 
I  will  not  answer  ?  "  No !  not  Jehovah  !  —  wisdom  I 
This  is  a  picture  of  life  as  the  author  has  actually 
seen  it,  as  we  have  all  seen  it.  The  young  man 
had  wise  counsels ;  he  was  told  that  if  he  went  on 
in  his  present  career  he  would  bring  evil  on  him- 
1  Prov.  i.  22-28. 


A   SCHOOL    OF  ETHICAL  PHILOSOPHY       275 

self.  But  he  was  headstrong,  he  was  wiser  than 
his  father,  he  would  take  his  own  course,  he  has 
taken  it,  he  has  ruined  himself,  he  is  dishonored 
and  disgraced  in  his  own  eyes  and  in  the  eyes  of 
all  men.  And  now  these  counsels  of  the  past  come 
flocking  about  him  like  ghosts,  taunting  him  and 
saying  to  him,  I  told  you  so.  His  father  may  not 
say  so ;  his  mother  may  not  say  so ;  if  they  are 
wise,  they  will  not,  but  life  says  so.  And  then, 
while  all  these  ghosts  of  the  wisdom  of  the  past  are 
repeating  to  him  the  story  of  his  folly,  while  they 
are  scourging  him  with  whips  like  scorjiions,  then 
comes  to  him  the  voice  of  Jehovah  as  it  is  inter- 
preted by  the  idealist :  — 

"  Seek  ye  the  Lord  while  he  may  be  found,  call  ye 
upon  him  while  he  is  near ;  let  the  wicked  forsake  his 
way,  and  the  unrighteous  man  his  thoughts  :  and  let  him 
return  unto  the  Lord,  and  he  will  have  mercy  upon  liim  ; 
and  to  our  God,  for  he  will  abundantly  pardon.  For 
my  thoughts  are  not  your  thoughts,  neither  are  your 
ways  my  ways,  saith  the  Lord.  For  as  the  heavens  are 
higher  than  the  earth,  so  are  my  ways  higher  than  your 
ways,  and  my  thoughts  than  your  thoughts."  ^ 

The  reason  for  the  difference  between  the  first 
chapter  of  Proverbs  and  the  fifty-fifth  chapter  of 
Isaiah  is  that  the  writer  of  Proverbs  shows  forth 
the  thoughts  of  man,  while  the  prophet  shows 
forth  the  thoughts  of  God,  and  God's  thoughts  are 
not  our  thoughts,  neither  are  his  ways  our  ways. 
And  when  this  experience  of  our  own  folly  rises 
1  laa.  Iv.  6-9. 


276      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

up  to  taunt  us,  this  voice  of  divine  forgiveness 
summons  us  from  ourselves  to  liim  ;  the  answer  to 
Proverbs  is  in  Isaiah  ;  the  refuge  from  the  mocking 
voice  of  human  wisdom  is  turning  from  ourselves 
to  him  whose  ways  are  higher  than  our  ways  and 
his  thoughts  than  our  thoughts. 

The  Book  of  Proverbs  contains  a  great  number 
of  single  aphorisms.  It  is  in  vain  to  look  for  any 
connection  between  them,  for  there  is  no  connec- 
tion. They  are  not  even  classified  according  to 
subjects.  They  cover  a  large  range  of  human  ex- 
perience. They  are  observant,  shrewd,  keen-edged, 
often  humorous,  more  often  satirical.  "  The  Pro- 
verbs," says  Professor  W.  J.  Beecher  of  Auburn 
Theological  Seminary,^  "  are  remarkably  rich  in 
humor,  though  this  is  a  fact  which  most  readers 
fail  to  appreciate,  by  reason  of  our  accustomed 
solemn  way  of  looking  at  everything  in  the  Bible;" 
a  sentence  worth  consideration  by  those  who  think 
it  irreverent  to  find  occasion  for  merriment  in  a 
book  which  explicitly  declares  that  "  a  merry  heart 
is  a  good  medicine."  ^  Three  examples  of  this 
humor  will  suffice  to  illustrate  this  characteristic 
of  the  collection. 

"  Confidence  in  an  unfaithful  man  in  time  of  trouble 
Is  a  broken  tooth  and  a  foot  out  of  joint."  ^ 

You  relied  on    your  tooth  to  feed   you;    it  is 

^  The  Bible  as  Literature,  p.  119.  Tlie  chapter  in  this  volume 
on  the  Wisdom  Literature  by  Professor  Beecher  is  an  admirable 
sketch  of  its  salient  characteristics. 

-  Prov.  xvii.  22.     Compare  xv.  13,  15. 

3  Prov.  XXV.  19. 


A   SCHOOL    OF  ETHICAL   PHILOSOPHY       277 

broken,  and  every  movement  gives  you  a  twinge  of 
pain ;  you  relied  on  your  foot  to  carry  you ;  at 
every  step  you  limp,  or  you  halt  altogether.  Such 
is  the  friend  you  relied  upon  to  stand  by  you  in 
trouble  and  who  when  the  trouble  came  left  you 
in  the  lurch. 

"  He  that  passeth  by  and  vexetli  himself  with  strife  belonging  not 
to  him 
Is  like  one  that  taketh  a  dog  by  the  ears."  ^ 

Why  ?  Because  when  one  has  once  gotten  an  ugly 
dog  by  the  ears  one  cannot  let  go.  Analogous  to 
this  is  the  Chinese  proverb  :  "  Riding  the  tiger  — 
hard  riding,  but  you  cannot  get  off." 

"  A  continual  dropping  in  a  very  rainy  day 
And  a  contentious  woman  are  alike  : 
He  that  would  restrain  her  restraineth  the  wind, 
And  his  right  hand  encountereth  oil."  ^ 

He  cannot  stop  her ;  and  if  he  tries  to  do  it,  she 
slips  out  from  under  him  and  begins  again  in  the 
same  strain. 

But  this  Book  of  Proverbs  contains  not  only 
single  aphorisms  ;  it  also  contains  odes,  sonnets, 
riddles,  life  portraits :  in  one  respect  only  like  the 
single  aphorisms,  —  they  are  drawn  from  the  obser- 
vation and  experience  of  life. 


"  For  three  things  the  earth  doth  tremble, 
And  for  four  things  which  it  cannot  bear." 

What  are  they  ? 

^  Prov.  xxvi.  17.  ^  Prov.  xxvii.  15,  16. 


278      LIFE  AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE  HEBREWS 

"  For  a  servant  when  he  is  king ; 
And  a  fool  when  he  is  filled  with  meat ; 
For  an  odious  woman  when  she  is  married  ; 
And  for  an  handmaid  that  is  heir  to  her  mistress."  ^ 

"  There  be  four  things  which  are  little  upon  the  earth, 
But  they  are  exceeding  wise." 

What  are  they  ? 

"  The  ants  are  a  people  not  strong  ; 
Yet  they  provide  their  meat  iu  the  summer; 
The  conies  are  hut  a  feeble  folk, 
Yet  make  they  their  houses  in  the  rocks ; 
The  locusts  have  no  king, 
Yet  they  go  forth  all  of  them  by  bands ; 
The  lizard  thou  canst  seize  with  thy  hands, 
Yet  is  she  in  kings'  palaces."  ^ 

These  hardly  seem  to  us  like  riddles,  hut  they  have 
the  same  quality :  a  question  or  comparison  ;  the 
answer  concealed  for  a  moment,  and  then  given. 

There  are  Meissonier  pictures  :  minute,  graphic, 
realistic,  unromantic,  unimaginative,  —  pictures 
drawn  not  by  Fancy,  hut  by  Observation. 

THE    PROSPEROUS    FARMER. 

"  Be  thou  diligent  to  know  the  state  of  thy  flocks, 

And  look  well  to  thy  herds  : 

For  riches  are  not  forever  ; 

And  doth  the  crown  endure  unto  all  generations  ? 

The  hay  is  carried, 

And  the  tender  grass  showeth  itself, 

And  the  herbs  of  the  mountains  are  gathered  in. 

The  lambs  are  for  thy  clothing. 

And  the  goats  for  the  price  of  the  field  : 

And  there  will  be  goats'  milk  enough  for  thy  food. 

For  the  food  of  thy  household  ; 

And  maintenance  for  thy  maidens."  ' 
1  Prov.  XXX.  21-23.  ^  Pfo^.  ^x^.  24-28. 

^  Prov.  xxvii.  23-27.     For  other  illustrations  of  this  pictorial 


I 


A   SCHOOL    OF  ETHICAL   PHILOSOPHY        279 
With  it  contrast :  — 

THE    UNPROSPERODS   FARMER. 

"  I  went  by  the  field  of  the  slothful, 
And  by  the  vineyard  of  the  man  void  of  understanding ; 
And,  lo,  it  was  all  grown  over  with  thorns, 
And  the  face  thereof  was  covered  with  nettles, 
And  the  stone  wall  thereof  was  broken  down. 
Then  I  beheld,  and  considered  well : 
I  saw,  and  received  instruction. 
Yet  a  little  sleep,  a  little  slumber, 
A  little  folding  of  the  hands  to  sleep  : 
So  shall  thy  poverty  come  as  a  robber ; 
And  thy  want  as  an  armed  man."  ^ 

Not  only  there  is  no  theology  in  the  Book  of 
Proverbs,  that  is,  no  system  of  divine  truth  ;  there 
is  also  no  ethical  system ;  truth  is  not  taught  in  a 
system.  But  the  ethical  standard  is  high.  "  Its 
maxims,"  says  Professor  Toy,  "  all  look  to  the 
establishment  of  a  safe,  peaceful,  happy  social  life 
in  the  family  and  the  community."  ^  These  pro- 
verbs commend  the  common  virtues,  and  denounce 
or  satirize  the  common  vices  of  mankind,  but  they 
do  not  bring  to  bear  upon  the  reader  the  highest 

realism,  see  The  Tippler,  chapter  xxiii.  24-35,  and  The  Virtuous 
Woman,  chapter  xxxi.  10-31. 

^  Prov.  xxiv.  30-34. 

2  Professor  Toy  deduces  a  very  simple  theology  from  the  Book 
of  Proverbs,  but  it  is  avowedly  his  deduction  from  the  book,  not 
tlie  deduction  from  life  by  the  author  or  editor  of  the  book.  Tliis 
theology  includes  the  following  :  Monotheism  is  taken  for  granted  ; 
sin  is  the  violation  of  law  ;  salvation,  which  is  deliverance  from 
earthly  evil,  is  secured  by  obedience  to  law ;  there  is  no  judgment 
after  death,  and  the  future  of  men  in  Sheol  lias  no  relation  to 
moral  character.  The  International  Critical  Commentary :  The 
Book  of  Proverbs,  by  Crawford  H.  Toy,  Introduction,  pp.  xv.,  xvi. 


280      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

motives ;  they  do  not  urge  obligation  to  obey  law 
because  it  is  the  law  of  God,  nor  because  it  is  abso- 
lutely and  eternally  just  and  right,  nor  even  be- 
cause it  promotes  the  general  welfare  ;  but  because 
obedience  will  promote  the  well-being  of  the  obedi- 
ent. The  spirit  of  the  book  is  not  idealistic ;  not 
that  of  loyalty  to  Jehovah,  nor  that  of  obedience 
to  conscience,  nor  that  of  regard  for  others ;  it 
is  prudential.  The  book  never  antagonizes  the 
higher  motives  ;  it  is  entirely  consistent  with  them  ; 
but  it  does  not  appeal  to  them.  It  deals  with  the 
relations  of  man  to  his  fellow  man,  it  deduces  the 
maxims  respecting  these  relations  from  experience 
of  life,  not  from  a  revealed  will  of  God,  nor  from 
an  inward  witness  of  the  conscieuce.  The  maxims 
which  it  thus  commends  are  consonant  with  those 
which  law  as  interpreted  by  the  legalist  and  life  as 
interpreted  by  the  idealist  commend  ;  but  it  does 
not  formulate  any  great  principles  or  laws  of  moral 
life  ;  it  is  a  book  of  maxims  based  upon  experience. 
In  general  the  basis  of  these  maxims  is  univer- 
sal experience.  In  this  respect  Hebrew  proverbs 
are  unlike  those  of  other  nationalities.  Proverbs, 
being  based  on  experience,  are  often  provincial 
in  tone ;  they  take  on  their  form,  if  they  do  not 
derive  their  ethical  character,  from  the  peculiar 
circumstances  of  the  nation  which  has  given  them 
birth.  Thus  it  is  Germany,  land  of  the  Eeforma- 
tion,  that  coins  the  proverb,  "  God's  friend  is  the 
priest's  foe  ; "  Germany,  the  land  that  abounds 
with  beer,  that  produces  the  proverb,  "  More  men 


A   SCHOOL    OF  ETHICAL   PHILOSOPUY       281 

are  drowned  in  the  bowl  than  are  drowned  in  the 
sea ;  "  and  it  is  in  Germany,  which  requires  a  new 
discovery  in  order  to  confer  a  Ph.  D.,  that  the 
people  have  coined  the  proverb,  "  Always  some- 
thing new,  seldom  something  good."  We  cross 
the  border  and  come  into  Italy;  it  is  in  Italy, 
laud  of  the  bandits,  that  the  proverb  appears,  "  To 
him  who  can  take  what  thou  hast,  give  what  he 
asks  ;  "  it  is  Italy,  land  of  the  siesta,  that  coins  the 
proverb,  "  First  get  a  good  name,  then  go  to 
sleep  ;  "  it  is  Italy,  laud  of  treachery,  poisons,  and 
assassinations,  that  coins  the  proverbs,  "  Even 
woods  have  ears  "  and  "  Even  among  the  Apostles 
there  was  a  Judas."  Cross  the  border  again  and 
come  into  France ;  it  is  France,  one  of  whose 
writers  said  that  England  had  twenty  religions 
and  only  one  sauce,  that  coins  the  proverb,  "  For 
wolf's  flesh,  dog  sauce  ;  "  France,  where  men  rarely 
go  to  church  and  still  more  rarely  absent  them- 
selves from  the  table,  that  coins  the  proverb,  "  A 
short  mass  and  a  long  dinner."  In  Holland,  sturdy 
land  of  thrift,  the  proverbs  appear,  "  Persever- 
ance brings  success  ;  "  "  Every  day  a  thread  makes 
a  skein  in  the  year ;  "  "  Biding  makes  thriving." 
In  Armenia,  where  no  man  knows  whether  what 
he  owns  belongs  to  him  or  not,  the  proverb  is 
coined,  "  Pie  feeds  the  hen  with  one  hand,  and 
takes  her  Qg^  with  the  other  ;  "  in  Armenia,  where 
men  have  lived  long  under  the  terror  of  the  Turk, 
appears  the  proverb,  "The  wolf  knows  no  reckon- 
ing;" in  Armenia,  land  of  dishonesty  because  of 


282      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

cruelty  under  oppression,  runs  the  proverb,  "  I  do 
not  want  it,  put  it  in  my  pocket."  This  provin- 
cial character  of  proverbs  receives  striking  illus- 
tration in  the  transformation  which  proverbs  some- 
times undergo  in  passing  from  one  country  to  an- 
other. Thus  the  English  proverb,  "  A  May  flood 
never  did  good  "  becomes  in  southern  Spain  and 
Italy  "  Water  in  May  is  bread  for  all  the  year  ;  " 
and  the  English  proverb  "  Dry  August  and  warm 
does  harvest  no  harm  "  is  converted  in  Spain  into 
"  When  it  rains  in  August  it  rains  honey  and 
wine." 

In  the  Hebrew  proverbs  there  is  nothing  pro-' 
vincial  and  little  or  nothing  distinctively  Hebraic. 
They  seem  to  belong  neither  to  the  race  nor  to  the  / 
age,  but  to  be  expressions  of  a  universal  experi- 
ence.    Literature  is  the  expression  of  life  :  there- 
fore the  greater  the  life  expressed,  the  greater  the    I 
literature.    The  essay,  poem,  or  drama  which  repre-  / 
sents  simply  a  provincial  and  temporary  phase  of 
life,  in  a  provincial  dialect,  belongs  to  the  lowest 
class ;  that  which  represents  the  characteristic  life 
of  its  age  belongs  in  the  second  class ;  that  which 
represents  universal  experience,  that  of  all  men  in 
all  ages,  —  a  Homer,  a  Dante,   a  Shakespeare,  — 
belongs  in  the  highest  class.     It  is  one  character- 
istic of  the  proverbs  of  the  Hebrew  people    that 
they  are  expressions  of  universal  experience,  appli- 
cable to  America  in  the  twentieth  century  scarcely 
less  than  to  the  Hebrew  people  in  the  fifth  century 
before  Christ. 


A  SCHOOL    OF  ETHICAL  PHILOSOPHY       283 

There  is  no  cynicism  in  the  Hebrew  proverbs. 
The  Hebrew  satirizes  the  unfaithful  friend,  but 
his  experience  of  a  friend's  unfaithfulness  does 
not  make  him  skeptical  concerning  friendship. 
Contrast  with  the  cynical  proverb  of  the  French : 
"  God  save  me  from  the  friends  I  trust  in,"  or  of 
the  Spanish,  "  A  reconciled  friend  is  a  double 
enemy,"  with  the  carefully  defined  comparison  of 
an  unfaithful  friend  to  a  broken  tooth.  The  He- 
brew satirizes  the  contentious  woman,  but  nowhere 
does  he  treat  woman  with  the  cynical  contempt  of 
Pope  :  "  Every  woman  is  at  heart  a  rake  ; "  no- 
where do  we  find  in  this  collection  of  Hebrew  pro- 
verbs the  contempt  for  woman's  intellig-ence  ex- 
pressed in  the  old  English  proverb  "  When  an  ass 
climbs  a  ladder  one  may  find  wisdom  in  women." 
On  the  contrary,  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  in 
literature  a  more  appreciative  portraiture  of  the 
faithful  housewife  than  in  the  last  chapter  of  Pro- 
verbs ;  I  say  housewife^  for  the  portrait  is  not,  and 
does  not  profess  to  be,  an  ideal ;  there  are  no  ideals 
in  the  Book  of  Proverbs ;  it  is  a  realistic  picture 
of  an  industrious  woman  at  her  housewifely  work 
for  her  husband  and  her  children ;  not  a  "  Dream 
of  Fair  Women,"  not  a  Raphael's  Madonna,  but 
a  Dutch  artist's  photographic  reproduction  from 
daily  life,  a  Mrs.  Primrose  in  the  "  Vicar  of  Wake- 
field" ;  common,  prosaic,  realistic,  but  not  cynical. 
Nowhere  in  the  Book  of  Proverbs  do  we  find  a])h- 
orisms  analogous  to  these  taken,  almost  at  random, 
from  modern  collections  :  — 


284      LIFE  AND   LITERATURE   OF   THE  HEBREWS 

"  We  all  have  strength  enough  to  bear  other  people's 
troubles." 

"  The  poorhouses  are  filled  with  the  honestest  peo- 
ple." 

"The  worst  pig  gets  the  best  acorn." 
"  No  camel  ever  sees  his  own  hump." 
"  Gratitude  is  a  lively  sense  of  favors  to  come." 
"  Repentance  is  fear  of  iU  yet  to  come  upon  us." 
"  Love  of  justice  is  the  fear  of  suffering  injustice." 
"  The  public  !     How  many  fools  does  it  take  to  make 
the  public  ?  " 

"  Celebrity  is  the  advantage  of  being  known  to  people 
who  do  not  know  you." 

Cynicism  involves  contempt  for  man  and  gener- 
ally contempt  for  the  common  virtues,  and  neither 
contempt  for  man  nor  contempt  for  the  common 
virtues  is  to  be  found  in  the  Book  of  Proverbs. 
Even  the  satire  of  the  Hebrew  Proverbs  is  a  kindly 
satire  ;  they  are  pervaded  by  a  sj^irit  of  cheerful- 
ness and  good-fellowship ;  they  are  keyed  to  a 
high  standard  of  ethics ;  among  them  are  maxims 
which  in  their  spirit  suggest,  though  they  do  not 
equal,  those  of  the  New  Testament.  Compare,  for 
example,  these  counsels  of  the  Hebrew  wise  men 
with  the  later  counsel  of  Christ.  They  are  almost 
identical,  not  only  in  the  advice  given,  but  in 
the  prudential  foundation  on  which  the  advice  is 
based. 

THE    HEBREW    WISE   MAN. 

"  Put  not  thyself  forward  in  the  presence  of  the  king 
And  stand  not  in  the  place  of  great  men  : 
For  better  it  is  that  it  be  said  unto  thee,  Come  up  hither ; 


A   SCHOOL    OF  ETHICAL   PHILOSOPHY       285 

Than  that  thou  shouldest  be  put  lower  in  the  presence  of  the 

prince, 
Whom  thine  eyes  have  seen."  ^ 

CHRIST. 

"  When  thou  art  bidden  of  any  man  to  a  wedding,  sit 
not  down  in  the  highest  room,  lest  a  more  honorable 
man  than  thou  be  bidden  of  him.  And  he  that  bade 
thee  and  him  come  and  say  to  thee,  Give  this  man  place  ; 
and  thou  begin  with  shame  to  take  the  lowest  room. 
But  when  thou  art  bidden,  go  and  sit  down  in  the  low- 
est room ;  that  when  he  that  bade  thee  cometh,  he  may 
say  unto  thee,  Friend,  go  up  higher  ;  then  shalt  thou 
have  worship  in  the  presence  of  them  that  sit  at  meat 
with  thee."  "^ 

Or  again  compare  the  ethical  instruction  of  Paul 
with  that  of  the  Book  of  Proverbs  from  which  he 
quotes  it :  — 

PROVERBS. 

"  If  thine  enemy  be  hungry,  give  him  bread  to  eat ; 

And  if  he  be  thirsty,  give  him  water  to  drink  : 
For  thou  shalt  heap  coals  of  fire  upon  his  head. 
And  the  Lord  shall  reward  thee."  ^ 


"  Dearly  beloved,  avenge  not  yourselves,  but  rather 
give  place  unto  wrath  :  for  it  is  written,  Vengeance  is 
mine  ;  I  will  repay,  saith  the  Lord.  Therefore,  if  thine 
enemy  hunger,  feed  him ;  if  he  tliirst,  give  him  drink : 
for  in  so  doing  thou  shalt  heap  coals  of  fire  on  his 
head."  * 

^  Prov.  XXV.  6,  7.  ^  Luke  xiv.  8-10. 

8  Prov.  XXV.  21,  22.  ♦  Rom.  xii.  20. 


286      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE   OF   THE   HEBREWS 

The  counsel  is  the  same ;  but  the  Wise  Man  in  the 
Proverbs  promises  a  reward  to  those  who  follow  it ; 
Paul  promises  nothing ;  and  Christ  who  calls  to 
his  followers  to  give  a  like  treatment  to  their  ene- 
mies, summons  to  love  as  well  as  to  service,  and 
for  motive  appeals  to  the  highest  aspiration  of  the 
soul :  "  That  ye  may  be  the  children  of  your  Father 
which  is  in  heaven."  ^ 

God  speaks  to  us  with  many  voices.  To  men 
whose  conscience  is  alert  he  speaks  through  law, 
saying  :  "  I  am  the  Lord  thy  God  ;  thou  shalt  have 
no  other  gods  before  me  ;  "  to  the  men  whose  imag- 
ination is  receptive  he  speaks  through  poetry, 
declaring  that  in  his  temple  everything  saith 
"  Glory ; "  to  the  man  of  broad  observation  he 
speaks  in  history,  showing  in  the  course  of  Israel's 
history  how  Jehovah  is  revealed  in  his  dealing 
with  the  sons  of  men  ;  to  the  man  who  is  a  cere- 
monialist  he  speaks  through  the  Levitical  code, 
pointing  out  justice  on  the  one  hand  and  mercy  on 
the  other  ;  and  to  the  man  whose  horizon  is  limited 
by  this  world,  who  has  no  clear  hope  beyond  the 
grave  and  no  clear  vision  of  the  Eternal  Father, 
he  speaks  through  the  Book  of  Proverbs,  saying 
in  effect :  If  there  were  no  God,  and  if  there  were 
no  life  to  come,  still  sin  would  be  folly  and  virtue 
would  be  wisdom. 

1  Matt.  V.  43-48. 


CHAPTER  XII 

A   SCHOOL    OF   ETHICAL   PHILOSOPHY  —  II 

The  Book  of  Ecclesiastes  is  like  the  Book  of 
Proverbs  in  that  it  is  an  interpretation  of  life  from 
the  point  of  view  of  experience  ;  ^  it  differs  from 

^  The  difl&culties  which  attend  the  interpretation  of  the  Book 
of  Ecclesiastes  are  illustrated  by  the  following  summary  of  opin- 
ions which  have  been  expressed  respecting  it  by  different  scholars  : 
"  We  are  positively  assured  that  the  book  contains  the  holy  lamen- 
tations of  kjoloraon,  together  with  a  prophetic  vision  of  the  split- 
ting up  of  the  royal  house  of  David,  the  destruction  of  the  temple, 
and  the  captivity  ;  and  we  are  equally  assured  that  it  is  a  discus- 
sion between  a  refined  sensualist  and  a  sober  sage.  Solomon  pub- 
lishes it  in  his  repentance,  to  glorify  God  and  to  strengthen  his 
brethren  ;  he  wrote  it  when  he  was  irreligious  and  skeptical  dur- 
ing his  amours  and  idolatry.  The  Messiah,  the  true  Solomon, 
who  was  known  by  the  title  of  son  of  David,  addresses  this  book 
to  the  saints ;  a  profligate  who  wanted  to  disseminate  his  infa- 
mous sentiments  palmed  it  upon  Solomon.  It  teaches  us  to  de- 
spise the  world  with  all  its  pleasures  and  flee  to  monasteries  ;  it 
shows  that  sensual  gratifications  are  men's  greatest  blessing  upon 
earth.  It  is  a  philosophic  lecture  delivered  to  a  literary  society 
upon  topics  of  the  greatest  moment ;  it  is  a  medley  of  heteroge- 
neous fragments  belonging  to  various  authors  and  difl'erent  ages. 
It  describes  the  beautiful  order  of  God's  moral  government,  show- 
ing that  all  things  work  together  for  good  to  them  that  love  tlie 
Lord ;  it  proves  that  all  is  disorder  and  confusion  and  that  the 
world  is  the  sport  of  chance.  It  is  a  treatise  on  the  summum  bo- 
num ;  it  is  a  chronicle  of  the  lives  of  the  kings  of  the  house  of 
David  from  Solomon  down  to  Zedekiah.  Its  object  is  to  prove 
the  immortality  of  the  soul ;  its  design  is  to  deny  a  future  exist- 


288      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

the  Book  of  Proverbs  in  that  it  is  by  a  single 
author,  who  interprets  life  chiefly  from  the  point 
of  view  of  a  single  experience,  that  of  King  Solo- 
mon. 

All  modern  or  literary  students  of  the  Bible 
are  agreed  that  Solomon  is  not  the  author  of  the 
book.i  The  fact  that  in  its  title-page  ^  authorship 
is  attributed  to  "  the  Preacher,  the  Son  of  David, 
King  in  Jerusalem,"  is  not  conclusive.     That  cer- 

ence.  Its  aim  is  to  comfort  the  unhappy  Jews  in  their  misfor- 
tunes ;  and  its  sole  purport  is  to  pour  forth  the  gloomy  imagina- 
tions of  a  melancholy  misanthrope.  It  is  intended  to  '  open 
Nathan's  speech  (1  Chron.  xviii.)  touching  the  eternal  throne  of 
David,'  and  it  propounds  by  anticipation  the  modern  discoveries 
of  anatomy  and  the  Harveian  theory  of  the  circulation  of  the 
blood.  It  foretells  what  will  become  of  man  or  angels  to  eternity, 
and,  according  to  one  of  the  latest  and  greatest  authorities,  it  is  a 
keen  satire  on  Herod,  written  8  B.  c,  when  the  king  cast  his  son 
Alexander  into  prison."  C.  D.  Ginsburg :  Encyclopedia  Britan- 
nica,  article  Ecclesiastes.  The  student  will  find  the  material  for  a 
careful  study  of  the  Book  of  Ecclesiastes  in  Dr.  Samuel  Cox's 
Commentary  on  Ecclesiastes,  Expositor's  Bible;  in  Dean  Plump- 
tre  on  Ecclesiastes,  The  Cambridge  Bible ;  in  Professor  Moul- 
ton's  view  of  Ecclesiastes  as  given  in  the  Modern  Readers  Bible  ; 
and  in  Dean  Stanley's  interpretation  of  Ecclesiastes  in  his  Lectures 
on  the  Jewish  Church,  vol.  ii.  pp.  282-287. 

^  For  a  clear  statement  of  the  grounds  on  which  this  considera- 
tion is  based  see  Professor  Moulton's  Modern  Beader''s  Bible,  Ec- 
clesiastes, Introduction,  §  1  ;  Plumptre's  Commentary  on  Ecclesi- 
astes, The  Cambridge  Bible,  Introduction,  pp.  19-34 ;  Driver's 
Introduction  to  the  Literature  of  the  Old  Testament,  pp.  46.5-478. 
The  arguments  are  chiefly  two  :  first,  that  the  language  and  style 
are  not  those  of  the  Solomonic  era ;  second,  that  Solomon's  reign 
was  one  of  great  material  prosperity,  while  the  Book  of  Ecclesi- 
astes assumes  a  condition  of  national  adversity  imder  cruel  foreign 
oppression. 

2  Eccles.  i.  1. 


A   SCHOOL    OF  ETHICAL   PHILOSOPHY       289 

tainly  means  Solomon  ;  but  in  all  ages  it  has  been 
customary  for  men  to  write  in  the  name  of  some 
other  character,  real  or  fictitious.  Such  writing  is 
not  fraudulent,  unless  the  object  of  the  writer  is  to 
palm  off  a  false  name  upon  his  readers  in  order 
to  secure  for  his  writing  a  false  authority.  In  this 
case  there  certainly  is  no  such  endeavor  by  the 
author  to  secure  divine  authority  for  his  book,  for 
the  experience  portrayed  is  anything  but  a  divine 
experience.  No  one  charges  Robert  Browning  with 
fraud  because  in  the  "Death  in  the  Desert "  he 
puts  his  own  sentiments  into  the  mouth  of  the 
dying  Apostle  John.  In  some  such  manner  a  poet, 
probably  of  the  fourth  century  before  Christ,  took 
Solomon  as  a  vehicle  for  the  expression  of  a  cer- 
tain interpretation  of  life.  But  though  Solomon 
did  not  write  this  prose-poem,  in  interpreting  it 
we  may  make  use  of  our  knowledge  of  Solomon,  as 
our  understanding  of  the  character  of  King  John 
will  help  us  to  understand  Shakespeare's  play  of 
that  name.  What  sort  of  character,  then,  was  Solo- 
mon, and  what  sort  of  experience  of  life  would  a 
poet  attribute  to  him  ? 

Solomon,  more  than  any  other  man  in  Old 
Testament  history,  represents  that  complexity  of 
character  which  Paul  has  so  graphically  described 
in  the  seventh  chapter  of  Romans.  He  was  brought 
up  by  religious  parents  ;  had  a  religious  training  ; 
was  familiar  with  the  law  of  God  and  with  the 
ritual  of  the  Temple  ;  his  conscience  was  educated 
by  the  law,  his  reverence  by  the  ritual.     But  when 


290      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

he  came  to  full  age  and  the  possession  of  power  and 
wealth  he  departed  from  his  religious  training  and 
became  the  great  sensualist  of  Israeli tish  history. 
The  description  of  the  splendor  of  his  court,  given 
in  the  Books  of  Kings  and  Chronicles,  is  paralleled 
by  the  historical  accounts  of  the  analogously  cor- 
rupt splendor  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.  in  France. 
He  built  a  magnificent  palace  ;  his  throne  was  of 
ivory ;  his  dishes  were  gold  ;  silver,  it  is  said,  was 
nothing  accounted  of ;  he  had  all  the  sensual  plea- 
sures of  an  Oriental  court,  —  men  singers  and 
women  singers  and  dancers  ;  he  had  a  great  retinue 
of  servants  ;  at  his  table,  it  is  said,  there  were  daily 
consumed  thirty  oxen,  one  hundred  sheep,  and  quan- 
tities of  game.  The  accuracy  of  the  figures  does 
not  concern  us ;  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  the 
accuracy  of  the  picture  which  they  convey.  He 
introduced  the  harem,  and  the  sensual  worship  of 
pagan  gods  ;  and  this  latter  carried  with  it,  in 
both  social  and  religious  life,  the  imitation  of 
pagan  ideals.  It  was  his  ambition,  not  only  to  ape 
but  to  rival  other  contemporaneous  empires.  Yet 
with  it  all  he  maintained  a  certain  intellectual 
glory.  Trained  in  religion,  possessing  an  educated 
conscience,  and  surrounding  himself  with  a  bar- 
baric and  sensual  splendor,  he  was  far  famed  for 
his  wisdom.  He  was  a  coiner  of  proverbs ;  from 
his  reign,  apparently,  dates  the  beginning  of  w^hat 
is  known  as  the  Wisdom  Literature  of  the  Old 
Testament.  When  the  Queen  of  Sheba,  attracted 
by  the  fame  of  his  splendor,  came  to  see  him,  she 


A   SCHOOL    OF  ETHICAL   PHILOSOPHY       291 

came,  it  is  said,  to  try  him  with  hard  questions. 
What  they  were  we  are  not  told,  but  she  was  satis- 
fied with  the  shrewdness  of  his  answers.  It  is  such 
a  man  as  this,  with  these  contradictory  and  conflict- 
ing elements,  —  a  religious  training,  an  educated 
conscience,  a  sensual  and  self-indulgent  nature,  and 
a  philosophic  mind  dealing  with  the  actualities  of 
life  and  trying  to  understand  the  riddle  of  exist- 
ence, —  that  the  poet  who  wrote  the  Book  of  Eccle- 
siastes  chose  for  his  mouthpiece.  He  imagines 
Solomon  musing  over  the  problem  of  life  ;  reflecfc- 
ing  upon  wealth,  sensual  pleasure,  gratified  ambi- 
tion, philosophic  wisdom,  and  what  these  bring  ; 
and  while  this  meditative  musing  on  the  varied  ex- 
periences of  life  is  going  on,  there  break  in  upon 
him  from  time  to  time  the  memory  of  his  child- 
hood's instruction,  the  sanctions  of  God's  law,  the 
protest  of  his  own  conscience,  and  reflections  sug- 
gested by  his  faith  in  the  righteousness  of  God  and 
a  future  judgment. 

Thus  the  Book  of  Ecclesiastes  is  a  dramatic 
monologue  portraying  the  complicated  experiences 
of  life ;  these  voices  are  conflicting,  but  they  poi-- 
tray  the  conflict  of  a  single  soul  at  war  with  itself. 
In  this  monologue  the  man  is  represented  as  argu- 
ing with  himself ;  weighing  the  contrasted  experi- 
ences of  life  over  against  one  another.^     A  philoso- 

1 "  As  the  Book  of  Job  is  couched  in  the  form  of  a  dramatic 
argument  between  the  Patriarch  and  his  friends,  as  the  Song'  of 
Songs  is  a  dramatic  dialogue  between  the  Lover  and  his  Beloved 
One,  so  the  Book  of  Ecclesiastes  is  a  drama  of  a  still  more  tra;;:ic 


292      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF    THE   HEBREWS 

pher  would  take  these  problems  in  order ;  he  would 
consider  first  the  value  of  pleasure,  then  that  of 
ambition,  then  that  of  wisdom,  etc.,  and  finally  he 
would  draw  from  this  orderly  and  consecutive  con- 
sideration a  logical  conclusion  as  to  life's  teaching. 
The  interpreter  of  Ecclesiastes,  translating  it  into 
an  orderly  and  philosophical  form,  is  obliged  to  do 
this.  But  the  writer  of  Ecclesiastes  is  not  a  philo- 
sopher ;  he  is  a  poet  interpreting  human  experience. 
And  it  is  not  in  such  well  ordered  thinking  our 
experiences  are  fashioned  within  us.  On  the  con- 
kind.  It  is  an  interchange  of  voices,  higher  and  lower,  mournful 
and  joyful,  within  a  single  human  soul.  It  is  like  the  struggle 
between  the  two  principles  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans.  It  is 
like  the  question  and  answer  of  the  '  Two  Voices '  of  our  modern 
poet.  It  is  like  the  perpetual  strophe  and  antistrophe  of  Pascal's 
Pensies.  But  it  is  more  complicated,  more  entangled,  than  any 
of  these,  in  proportion  as  the  circumstances  from  which  it  grows 
are  more  perplexing,  as  the  character  which  it  represents  is  vaster 
and  grander,  and  more  distracted.  Every  speculation  and  thought 
of  the  human  heart  is  heard,  and  expressed,  and  recognized  in 
turn.  The  conflicts  which  in  other  parts  of  the  Bible  are  confined 
to  a  single  verse  or  a  single  chapter  are  here  expanded  to  a  whole 
book."  The  History  of  the  Jewish  Church,  by  Arthur  Penrhyn 
Stanley,  D.  D.,  Lecture  xxviii.  pp.  282,  283.  —  Dean  Plumptre 
suggests  another  parallel  to  Ecclesiastes  in  the  144th  sonnet  of 
Shakespeare :  — 

"  Two  loves  I  have  of  comfort  and  despair 
Which,  like  two  spirits,  do  suggest  me  still. 
The  better  angel  is  a  man  right  fair, 
The  worser  spirit  a  woman  colored  ill. 
To  win  me  soon  to  hell,  my  female  evil 
Tempteth  my  better  angel  from  my  side, 
And  would  corrupt  my  saint  to  be  a  devil. 
Wooing  his  purity  with  her  foul  pride." 

Ecclesiastes,  The  Cambridge  Bible,  Introduction  by  E.  H.  Plump- 
tre, D.  D.,  p.  43. 


A   SCHOOL    OF  ETHICAL   PHILOSOPHY       293 

trary,  thoughts  come  tumultuously  into  our  mind ; 
they  fight  their  battle  out  within  our  consciousness  ; 
ambition,  sensuahty,  wisdom,  conscience,  —  all  con- 
tend for  the  mastery.  There  are  no  parliamentary 
laws  in  the  human  soul,  and  no  one  to  keep  order,  — 
first  one  voice  speaks,  and  then  another ;  they  shout 
against  one  another,  they  drown  one  another.  Thus 
the  Book  of  Ecclesiastes  is  deliberately  and  of  in- 
tention confused,  because  it  is  the  portrayal  of  the 
confused  experiences  of  a  soul  divided  against  itself. 
This  confusion  is  enhanced  by  one  literary  charac- 
teristic. The  writer  has  told  us,  in  the  last  chap- 
ter, that  he  has  sought  out  proverbs  ;  that  is,  ranged 
over  literature  to  get  apothegms  that  will  throw 
light  upon  the  problem  which  he  is  considering. 
These  proverbs,  familiar  in  his  time,  are  inserted 
in  the  dramatic  monologue ;  in  our  time  they  would 
be  put  in  quotation  marks,  with  a  footnote  to  say 
where  they  had  come  from.  But  there  were  no 
quotation  marks  at  that  time,  and  the  proverbs  are 
incorporated  in  the  body  of  the  text.  How  much 
of  the  book  is  gathered  from  a  wide  range  of  liter- 
ature and  how  much  is  original  with  the  writer,  we 
do  not  know  ;  but  at  times  there  are  literary  breaks 
in  the  order  which  may  fairly  be  attributed  to  quo- 
tations, more  or  less  apt. 

We  are  then  to  imagine  a  man  with  religious 
training,  an  educated  conscience,  an  apostate  life, 
who  has  tried  the  various  phases  of  self-seeking,  — 
sensuality,  philosophy,  ambition,  —  and  has  under- 
taken to  transcribe  the  results  of  his  experiences. 


294      LIFE  AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

The  product  is  a  journal  of  fragments,  in  this 
respect  analogous  to  Amiel's  Journal.  After  an 
introduction  giving  general  expression  to  his  spirit 
of  pessimistic  fatalism,  the  poet  records  the  experi- 
ences which  wealth  and  self-indulgence  bring.  He 
pictures  the  king  as  throwing  himself  with  a  certain 
abandon  into  a  life  of  self-indulgent  luxury,  and 
yet  remaining,  as  it  were,  outside  of  himself,  a 
spectator  of  himself,  a  self-student,  his  wisdom  re- 
maining with  him,  as  he  expresses  it,  that  he  may 
thus  investigate  and  see  what  is  the  value  of  wealth 
and  self-indulgence.  He  thus  reports  the  result  of 
this  spiritual  vivisection  :  — 

"  I  said  in  mine  heart,  Go  to  now,  I  will  prove  thee 
with  mirth ;  therefore  enjoy  pleasure  :  and,  behold,  this 
also  was  vanity.  I  said  of  laughter,  It  is  mad :  and  of 
mirth,  What  doeth  it?  I  searched  in  mine  heart  how 
to  cheer  my  flesh  with  wine,  mine  heart  yet  guiding  me 
with  wisdom,  and  how  to  lay  hold  on  folly,  till  I  might 
see  what  it  was  good  for  the  sons  of  men  that  they 
should  do  under  the  heaven  all  the  days  of  their  hfe.  I 
made  me  great  works  ;  I  builded  me  houses  ;  I  planted 
me  vineyards ;  I  made  me  gardens  and  parks,  and  I 
planted  trees  in  them  of  all  kinds  of  fruit :  I  made  me 
pools  of  water,  to  water  therefrom  the  forest  where 
trees  were  reared :  I  bought  men  servants  and  maidens, 
and  had  servants  born  in  my  house ;  also  I  had  great 
possessions  of  herds  and  flocks,  above  all  that  were 
before  me  and  in  Jerusalem :  I  gathered  me  also  silver 
and  gold  and  the  peculiar  treasure  of  kings  and  of  the 
provinces  :  I  gat  me  men  singers  and  women  singers, 
and  the  delights  of  the  sons  of  men,  concubines  very 


A    SCHOOL    OF  ETHICAL   PHILOSOPHY       295 

many.  So  I  was  great,  and  increased  more  than  all 
that  were  before  me  in  Jerusalem :  also  my  wisdom 
remained  with  me.  And  whatsoever  mine  eyes  desired 
I  kept  not  from  them :  I  withheld  not  my  heart  from 
any  joy,  for  my  heart  rejoiced  because  of  all  my  labor ; 
and  this  was  my  portion  from  all  my  labor.  Then  I 
looked  on  all  the  works  that  my  hands  had  wrought,  and 
on  the  labor  that  I  had  labored  to  do ;  and  behold,  all 
was  vanity  and  vexation  of  spirit,  and  there  was  no 
profit  under  the  sun."  ^ 

The  king  is  next  portrayed  as  giving  himself  in 
a  similar  spirit  to  ambition,  with  a  like  reflection 
on  the  experiment  while  he  is  trying  it ;  the  result 
is  the  same :  "  What  hath  a  man  of  all  his  labor, 
and  of  the  striving  of  his  heart  wherein  he  laboreth 
under  the  sun  ?  For  all  his  days  are  but  sorrows, 
and  his  travail  is  grief ;  yea  even  in  the  night  his 
heart  taketh  no  rest.     This  also  is  vanity."  ^ 

The  preacher's  experience  of  wealth,  pleasure, 
ambition  is  much  that  which  Lord  Byron  has 
expressed,  imputing  his  interpretation  to  Childe 
Harold  :  — 

"  Years  steal 
Fire  from  the  mind  as  vigor  from  the  limb ; 
And  life's  enchanted  cup  but  sparkles  near  the  brim. 

"  His  had  been  quaffed  too  quickly,  and  he  found 
The  days  were  wormwood  ;  but  he  filled  again, 
And  from  a  purer  fount,  on  holier  ground, 
And  deemed  its  spring  perpetual ;  but  in  vain  I 
Still  round  him  clung  invisibly  a  chain 
Which  gall'd  for  ever,  fettering  though  unseen, 

1  Eccles.  ii.  1-11.  2  Eccles.  ii.  22,  23. 


296      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

And  heavy  though  it  clanked  not ;  -worn  with  pain, 
Which  pined  altliough  it  spoke  not,  and  grew  keen, 
Entering  with  every  step  he  took  through  many  a  scene."  ^ 

Next  tlie  king  tries  philosophy  ;  the  result  is  no 
better.  The  wise  man  is  none  the  better  off  for 
all  his  thinking:  for 

"  that  which  befalleth  the  sons  of  men  hefalleth  beasts  ; 
even  one  thing  befalleth  them  :  as  the  one  dieth,  so  dieth 
the  other  ;  yea,  they  have  all  one  breath  ;  and  man  hath 
no  pre-eminence  above  the  beasts  :  for  all  is  vanity.  All 
go  unto  one  place  ;  all  are  of  the  dust,  and  all  turn  to 
dust  again."  ^ 

Wisdom,  ambition,  wealth,  pleasure,  all  are  van- 
ity. It  is  useless  to  build  houses  and  plant  gardens 
and  get  men  singers  and  women  singers  ;  useless  to 
allow  oneself  to  be  inspired  by  a  great  ambition  to 
attempt  great  things  in  the  world,  or  to  be  incited 
by  a  great  curiosity  to  understand  life's  mysteries  ; 
for  nothing  can  be  changed  and  nothing  can  be 
discovered ;  all  is  vanity  of  vanities.  The  poet's 
conclusion  as  to  wisdom,  "  of  making  many  books 
there  is  no  end  and  much  study  is  a  weariness  of 
the  flesh,"  brings  to  mind  that  of  the  Persian  poet, 
Omar  Khayyam,  as  interpreted  by  Edward  Fitz- 
gerald :  — 

"  Myself  when  young,  did  eagerly  frequent 
Doctor  and  Saint,  and  heard  great  argument 
About  it  and  about :  but  evermore 
Came  out  by  the  same  door  as  in  I  went." 

1  Childe  Harold  :  Canto  iii.,  stanzas  viii.  and  ix. 

2  Eccles.  ui.  19. 


A   SCHOOL    OF  ETHICAL  PHILOSOPHY       297 

Next  the  king  tries  the  golden  mean:  he  pro- 
poses to  take  life  as  he  finds  it ;  to  live  day  by  day 
without  ambition,  without  philosophy ;  to  choose 
the  middle  path,  the  path  of  safety.  He  will  try 
the  plan  of  taking  care  of  his  own  interests,  but 
with  some  regard  for  his  neighbor's  property :  — 

"  Two  are  better  than  one  ;  because  they  have  a  good 
reward  for  their  labor.  For  if  they  fail,  the  one  will 
lift  up  his  fellow  ;  but  woe  to  him  that  is  alone  when  he 
falleth  and  hath  not  another  to  lift  him  up.  Again,  if 
two  lie  together,  then  they  have  warmth,  but  how  can 
one  be  warm  alone  ?  And  if  a  man  prevail  against  him 
that  is  alone,  two  shall  withstand  him  ;  and  a  tlueefold 
cord  is  not  quickly  broken."  ^ 

Combination  is  better  than  unregulated  competi- 
tion :  not  because  love  and  service  are  higher  than 
self -seeking,  but  because  combination  is  a  wiser 
kind  of  self-seeking.  All  excess  fails :  feasting  is 
to  be  moderated  by  sympathy  for  the  mourner,  for 
"  it  is  better  to  go  to  the  house  of  mourning  than 
to  the  house  of  feasting :  for  that  is  the  end  of  all 
men ;  and  the  king  will  lay  it  to  his  heart."  It  is 
well  to  be  righteous,  but  not  too  righteous  ;  there  is 
a  golden  mean  between  abandoning  oneself  unre- 
servedly to  self-indulgence  and  devoting  oneself  too 
heroically  to  virtue  :  — 

"  Be  not  righteous  over  much ;  neither  make  thyself 
over  wise  ;  why  shouldest  thou  destroy  thyself  ?  Be  not 
ovei'much  wicked,  neither  be  thou  f  oohsh  ;  why  should- 
est thou  die  before  thy  time  ?  "  '^ 

1  Eccles.  iv.  9-12.  2  Eccles.  vii.  16,  17. 


298      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE   OF   THE   HEBREWS 

The  satirical  conclusion  of  the  king  may  be 
stated  thus :  be  as  virtuous  as  the  public  opinion 
of  your  time  requires  ;  more  than  that  is  perilous  ; 
less  than  that  is  fatal.  In  the  same  spirit  of  keen 
satire  Cardinal  Newman  has  graphically  described 
"  the  safe  man  :  "  — 

"  In  the  present  day,  mistiness  is  the  mother  of  wis- 
dom. A  man  who  can  set  down  a  half  a  dozen  general 
propositions,  which  escape  from  destroying  one  another 
only  by  being  diluted  into  truisms,  who  can  hold  the 
balance  between  opposites  so  skillfully  as  to  do  without 
fulcrum  or  beam,  who  never  enunciates  a  truth  without 
guarding  himself  against  being  supposed  to  exclude  the 
contradictory,  —  who  holds  that  Scripture  is  the  only 
authority,  yet  that  the  Church  is  to  be  deferred  to,  that 
faith  only  justifies,  yet  that  it  does  not  justify  without 
works,  that  grace  does  not  depend  on  the  Sacraments, 
yet  is  not  given  without  them,  that  bishops  are  a  divine 
ordinance,  yet  those  who  have  them  not  are  in  the  same 
religious  condition  as  those  who  have,  —  this  is  your 
safe  man  and  tlie  hope  of  the  Church  ;  this  is  what  the 
Church  is  said  to  want,  not  party  men,  but  sensible, 
temperate,  sober,  well-judging  persons,  to  guide  it  through 
the  channel  of  no-meaning  between  the  Scylla  and  Cha- 
rybdis  of  Aye  and  No."  ^ 

To  be  as  good  as  the  public  opinion  of  your  time 
requires  is  the  golden  mean.  And  what  comes  of 
that  ?  How  does  it  seem  when  old  age  comes  on 
and  death  draws  near  ?  The  poet  endeavors  in  ima- 
gination to  forecast  the  end  of  life,  and  with  beau- 

1  Apologia  Fro  Vita  Sua.  By  John  Henry,  Cardinal  Newman. 
pp.  102,  103. 


A   SCHOOL    OF  ETHICAL   PHTLOSOPHY       299 

tiful  poetic  figures  describes  the  habitation  of  the 
old  man  breaking  down  into  decay  and  ruin  :  — 

"  Rejoice,  0  young  man,  in  thy  youth  ;  and  let  thy 
heart  cheer  thee  in  the  days  of  thy  youth,  and  walk  in 
the  ways  of  thine  heart,  and  in  the  sight  of  thine  eyes  ; 
hut  know  thou,  that  for  all  these  things  God  wiU  hring 
thee  into  judgment.  Therefore  remove  sorrow  from  thy 
heart,  and  put  away  evil  from  thy  flesh ;  for  youth  and 
the  prime  of  hfe  are  vanity.  Remember  also  thy  Cre- 
ator in  the  days  of  thy  youth,  or  ever  the  evil  days  come, 
and  the  years  draw  nigh,  when  thou  shalt  say,  I  have  no 
pleasure  in  them  ;  or  ever  the  sun,  and  the  light,  and  the 
moon,  and  the  stars,  be  darkened,  and  the  clouds  return 
after  the  rain  ;  in  the  day  when  the  keepers  of  the  house 
shall  tremble,  and  the  strong  men  shall  bow  themselves, 
and  the  grinders  cease  because  they  are  few,  and  those 
that  look  out  of  the  windows  be  darkened,  and  the  doors 
shall  be  shut  in  the  street ;  when  the  sound  of  the  gi'ind- 
ing  is  low,  and  one  shall  rise  up  at  the  voice  of  a  bird, 
and  all  the  daughters  of  music  shall  be  brought  low  : 
yea,  they  shall  be  afraid  of  that  which  is  high,  and  ter- 
rors shall  be  in  the  way ;  and  the  almond  tree  shall  blos- 
som, and  the  grassho])per  shall  be  a  burden,  and  the 
caperberry  shall  fall :  because  man  goeth  to  his  long 
home,  and  the  mourners  go  about  the  streets ;  or  ever 
the  silver  cord  be  loosed,  or  the  golden  bowl  be  broken, 
or  the  pitcher  be  broken  at  the  fountain,  or  the  wheel 
broken  at  the  cistern  ;  and  the  dust  return  to  the  earth 
as  it  was,  and  the  spirit  return  unto  God  who  gave  it.  .  .  . 

..."  Tliis  is  the  end  of  the  matter  ;  all  that  hath  been 
heard  :  fear  God,  and  keep  his  commandments  ;  for  this 
is  the  whole  duty  of  man.     For  God  shall  bring  every 


300      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

work  into  judgment,  with  every  hidden  thing,  whether 
it  be  good  or  whether  it  he  evil."  ^ 

Perhaps  in  this  chapter  I  have  laid  too  much 
stress  on  the  cynical  and  satirical  view  of  life  which 
pervades  this  poem.  It  is  truly  a  poem  of  two 
voices ;  in  it  the  two  spirits  speak.  Through  it 
are  scattered  nuggets  of  practical  wisdom  which 
are  not  cynical  uor  satirical ;  such  are  those  which 
commend  the  cultivation  of  the  cheerful  spirit,  the 
joyous  life,  the  real  and  right  use  of  the  world  and 
what  it  brings  to  man  :  "  Go  thy  way,  eat  thy  bread 
with  a  joy  and  drink  thy  wine  with  a  merry  heart ;  " 
"  Live  joyfully  with  thy  wife  whom  tliou  lovest  all 
the  days  of  the  life  of  thy  vanity  ; "  "  Rejoice,  O 
young  man  in  thy  youth ; "  such  are  those  wliich 
counsel  to  moderation  and  self-restraint,  to  self- 
respect  and  the  cultivation  of  a  sound  mind  :  "  A 
good  name  is  better  than  precious  ointment ; "  "  The 
patient  in  spirit  is  better  than  the  proud  in  spirit ; " 
"  Wisdom  is  as  good  as  an  inheritance  ;  "  such  are 
some  of  the  proverbs  which  seem  not  to  belong  to 
the  poem,  but  to  be  attached  to  it,  much  as  in  a 
journal  the  writer  incorporates  apothegms  which 
have  impressed  him  as  specially  worthy  of  preser- 
vation :  "  He  that  diggeth  a  pit  shall  fall  into  it ;  " 
"  If  the  serpent  bite  before  it  is  charmed  there  is 

^  Eccles.  xi.  9-xii.  7,  xii.  13,  14.  Some  critics  think  that  this 
conclusion  of  the  whole  matter  was  written  by  another  pen.  I 
cannot  understand  their  point  of  view.  It  seems  clear  to  me  that 
from  the  beginning  to  the  end  that  was  the  result  constantly  kept 
in  mind  by  the  writer  of  this  gnomic  monodrama. 


A   SCHOOL    OF  ETHICAL  PHILOSOPHY       301 

no  advantage  in  tlie  charmer  ;  "  "  Cast  thy  bread 
upon  the  waters,  for  thou  shalt  find  it  after  many- 
days."  But  these  are  incidental  rather  than  essen- 
tial to  the  poem.  Its  theme  is  indicated  by  its 
opening  and  its  closing  lines  :  "  Vanity  of  vanities, 
all  is  vanity ;  "  what  then  ?  "  Let  us  eat  and  drink, 
for  to-morrow  we  die"?  No!  "Fear  God  and 
keep  his  commandments,  for  this  is  the  whole  duty 
of  man." 

I  do  not  know,  and  cannot  easily  imagine,  what 
he  makes  out  of  the  Book  of  Ecclesiastes  who  be- 
lieves that  every  sentence  in  the  Bible  is  equally 
authoritative  with  every  other  sentence.  "  Be  not 
righteous  overmuch."  Is  that  a  divinely  inspired 
counsel  ?  "  Vanity  of  vanities,  all  is  vanity."  Is 
that  a  divine  interpretation  of  life?  If  so,  how 
shall  we  reconcile  it  with  the  declaration  of  Paul : 
"  All  things  are  yours,  whether  Paul,  or  Apollos, 
or  Cephas,  or  the  world,  or  life,  or  death,  or  things 
present,  or  things  to  come,"  or  that  other  declara- 
tion that  "God  givetli  us  all  things  richly  to  enjoy"? 
The  truth  of  Ecclesiastes  is  the  truth  of  human 
experience,  larger  and  deeper  than  the  truth  of  any 
text.  Let  the  self-seeker  try  how  he  may  to  get 
satisfaction  out  of  life,  he  is  sure  to  fail  —  that  is 
the  lesson  of  Ecclesiastes  —  and  a  lesson  the  more  /^ 
eloquent  because  wrought  out  of  a  living  experl-  1 
ence.  Try  to  get  satisfaction  out  of  things  ;  ware- 
houses ten,  twelve,  fourteen  stories  high  ;  railroads 
binding  together  the  borders  of  a  continent ;  great 
palaces  ;  hundred  thousand  dollar  balls :    what  is 


302      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF  THE  HEBREWS 

the  end  ?  "  Vanity  of  vanities,  all  is  vanity."  We 
are  as  children  who  build  their  houses  on  the  sand 
and  the  tide  comes  and  sweeps  them  away.  Try  to 
get  satisfaction  out  of  philosophy  ;  we  do  not  need 
God,  nor  conscience,  nor  churches,  nor  religion ; 
these  are  for  women  and  children  ;  we  will  have  a 
public  school  system ;  great  universities ;  know- 
ledge ;  culture.  What  comes  of  that  experiment  ? 
The  end  is  the  same.  Cultivate  the  brain  and  leave 
the  heart  to  be  atrophied ;  cultivate  the  intellect  and 
leave  the  conscience  to  die ;  teach  men  how  to  be 
shrewd,  but  not  how  to  be  honest,  just,  true,  pure, 
and  the  end  of  that  Mr.  Huxley  thus  describes : 
"  Undoubtedly  your  gutter  child  may  be  converted 
by  mere  intellectual  drill  into  '  the  subtlest  of  all  the 
beasts  of  the  field ; '  but  we  know  what  has  become 
of  the  original  of  that  description,  and  there  is  no 
need  to  increase  the  number  of  those  who  imitate 
him  successfully  without  being  aided  by  the  rates."  ^ 
This  also  is  "  vanity  of  vanities."  Try,  then,  to 
accomplish  great  achievements  ;  but  still  for  our- 
selves, not  for  others ;  not  great  service  of  love, 
but  great  service  of  self ;  not  great  houses,  not 
great  wisdom,  but  great  ambitions  shall  be  our  aim ; 
shall  we  find  our  soul  satisfied  in  this  ?  The  end  of 
this,  too,  is  "vanity  of  vanities."  Self-indulgent 
pleasure  ends  in  pessimism  ;  self-indulgent  ambi- 
tion in  fatalism  :  "  That  which  hath  been  is  that 
which  shall  be ;  and  that  which  hath  been  done  is 
that  which  shall  be  done  ;  and  there  is  no  new  thing 
1  Science  and  Education  Essays :  The  School  Boards,  p.  396. 


A  SCHOOL    OF  ETHICAL   PHILOSOPHY      303 

under  the  sun."  That  is,  nothing  can  be  done  ;  why 
make  the  endeavor  ?  This  fatalism  of  Ecclesiastes 
is  not  more  mournful  than  that  of  modern  times, 
that  to  be  found,  for  example,  in  John  Cotter  Mor- 
ison's  "  Service  of  Man."  Even  self-sacrificing  ser- 
vice of  man  is  in  his  estimate  of  but  little  value : 
"  A  man  with  a  criminal  nature  and  education, 
under  given  circumstances  of  temptation  can  no 
more  help  committing  crime  than  he  can  help  hav- 
ing a  headache  under  certain  conditions  of  brain 
and  stomach."  "  No  merit  or  demerit  attaches  to 
the  saint  or  the  sinner  in  the  metaphysical  and 
mystic  sense  of  the  word.  Their  good  or  evil  qual- 
ities are  none  of  their  making."  "  The  sooner  the 
idea  of  moral  responsibility  is  got  rid  of  the  better 
it  will  be  for  society  and  moral  education."  "  Bad 
men  will  be  bad,  do  what  we  will ;  "  the  most  we 
can  do  is  to  make  them  "  less  bad."  This,  the 
necessarianism  of  its  latest  apostle,  is  as  dismal  and 
depressing  as  that  of  Ecclesiastes.  Let  us  then  try 
opportunism ;  take  life  as  it  comes ;  have  a  good 
time,  but  not  with  abandon  ;  cooperate  with  others, 
but  to  serve  ourselves  ;  keep  the  golden  mean ;  be 
a  trimmer  in  politics  and  vote  with  the  winning 
party  ;  be  a  "  safe  man  "  in  the  church,  and  teach 
not  what  we  believe,  but  what  others  think  we 
ought  to  believe.  And  though  the  party  may  give 
political  rewards  and  the  church  ecclesiastical  re- 
wards, when  old  age  comes  and  death  impends,  and 
the  disgrace  of  a  prosperous  and  useless  life  is 
about  to  be  bequeathed  to  our  sons  and  our  sons' 


304      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

sons,  posterity  will  write  our  biography  in  this 
single  phrase  of  this  ancient  poet,  "  Vanity  of  van- 
ities, all  is  vanity." 

What  then  ?  If  there  be  no  satisfaction  in  plea- 
sure, in  wisdom,  In  ambition,  in  the  golden  mean, 
where  can  it  be  found  ?  In  duty.  In  doing  right 
because  it  is  right.  Not  for  reward  here,  nor  for 
reward  hereafter,  not  for  happiness  on  earth,  not 
for  crowns  in  heaven,  not  for  immortality  of  fame, 
not  for  immortality  of  personal  existence  ;  but  be- 
cause duty  is  duty,  and  right  is  right,  and  God  is 
God.  This  seems  to  me  the  meaning  of  the  con- 
fessedly enigmatical  Book  of  Ecclesiastes. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

A   COLLECTION  OF  LYRICS 

The  Book  of  Psalms  is  a  collection  of  Hebrew 
lyrics.  It  is  a  mistake,  though  a  common  one,  to 
suppose  that  David  wrote  even  a  considerable  num- 
ber of  them.  Ewald  allows  twelve  of  the  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  Psalms  to  have  been  written  by 
David  ;  Cheyne  and  Driver  appear  to  think  that  a 
slight  overestimate. 1  If  we  sujipose  the  earliest 
Psalms  were  written  in  the  time  of  David  and  the 
last  in  the  time  of  the  Maccabees,  —  and  that  is 
now  the  prevailing  opinion,  —  then  the  Hebrew 
Psalter  represents  about  eight  hundred  and  fifty 
years  of  song  in  the  Hebrew  nation. 

The  authors  of  these  Psalms  and  the  date  of 
their  composition  are  not  known.  The  titles  to  cer- 
tain of  the  Psalms  giving  the  names  of  the  authors 
and  the  occasions  when  they  were  composed  were 
added  by  an  unknown  editor,  who  made  either  the 
collection  as  we  now  have  it,  or  the  prior  col- 
lections, which  are  incorporated  in  and  constitute 
the  present  collection.  There  is  very  little  reason 
to  suppose  that  this  unknown  editor  had  any  better 

^  The  twelve  are  Psalms  iii.,  iv.,  vii.,  viii.,  xi.,  xv.,  xviii.,  xix. 
1-6,  xxiv.,  xxix.,  xxxii.,  ci. 


306      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

advantages  for  knowing  who  were  the  aiathors  of 
these  Psalms  than  we  have ;  there  is  reason  to 
think  that  he  had  not  as  great  advantages.  The 
critical  faculty  was  not  as  largely  developed  in 
that  age,  and  the  grounds  on  which  his  opinion 
seems  to  have  been  sometimes  based  would  not  be 
regarded  as  adequate  by  any  modern  critic.  There- 
fore, when  we  read  the  statement  at  the  head  of  a 
Psalm:  "A  Psalm  of  David,"  or  "A  Psalm  of 
Moses,"  or  "  A  Psalm  of  Solomon,"  or  "  A  Psalm 
of  David  after  his  sin  with  Bathsheba,"  or  "A 
Psalm  of  David  after  his  experience  with  Doeg," 
we  take  this  as  what  some  unknown  editor,  perhaj^s 
two  centuries  before  Christ,  thought  about  the  mat- 
ter. These  titles  are  no  part  of  the  original  record ; 
they  are  not  authoritative ;  certainly  they  are  not 
conclusive  to  one  who  studies  the  Bible  in  the  sci- 
entific or  literary  spirit. 

The  collection  of  Psalms,  as  we  now  possess  it,  is 
composed  of  five  collections  which  had  been  previ- 
ously made.  This  is  so  evident  that  in  the  Revised 
Version  we  find  the  five  collections  put  into  five 
distinct  books  ;  each  of  which  closes  with  a  dox- 
ology.  At  the  end  of  the  second  book  is  the  state- 
ment :  "The  prayers  of  David  the  son  of  Jesse  are 
ended."  This  was  appended  to  that  book  to  indi- 
cate that  none  of  the  subsequent  Psalms  belonged 
to  David,  and  perhaps  to  indicate  that  all  the 
Psalms  in  the  previous  two  books  were  written  by 
him.  But  if  that  was  the  intention,  it  certainly 
was  a  mistake.     There  are  Psalms  in  the  subse- 


A   COLLECTION   OF  LYRICS  307 

quent  books  which  are,  by  their  titles,  attributed 
to  David,  and  there  are  Psalms  in  the  first  and 
second  books  which  history  shows  very  clearly  were 
not  written  by  him.  In  my  youth  we  sang  out  of 
a  hymn  book  entitled  "  Watts  and  Select,"  Watts 
comprising  the  larger  part  of  the  collection.  The 
Hebrew  hymnal  is  "  David  and  Select,"  though 
David  is  the  composer  of  only  a  minority  of  the 
Psalms ;  the  "  select "  includes  an  overwhelming 
majority  of  them. 

The  Hebrew  Book  of  Psalms  contains  all  the 
extant  lyric  poetry  of  the  ancient  Hebrews.  The 
word  "lyric"  is  derived  from  the  word  "lyre;"  in  its 
original  significance  a  lyric  poem  is  one  intended  to 
be  sung  with  accompaniment  on  the  lyre.  Substan- 
tially all  the  Hebrew  poetry  intended  to  serve  thus 
as  a  vehicle  for  song  is  included  in  the  Book  of 
Psalms.  Their  most  notable  characteristic  is  that 
they  are  all —  with  possibly  two  or  three  exceptions 
—  religious.  This  will  at  first  perhaps  seem  to  the 
casual  reader  a  truism,  since  this  collection  of  Psalms 
is  in  the  Bible;  but  it  is  in  fact  very  significant  that 
all  the  lyrics  of  the  Hebrew  people  which  have  been 
preserved  are  of  one  spirit.  Imagine  that  all  the 
extant  lyrics  of  an  ancient  people  were  amatory,  or 
all  were  martial,  should  we  not  draw  some  conclu- 
sions respecting  the  people  from  this  fact  ?  In  saj^- 
ing  that  all  the  lyrics  of  the  ancient  Hebrews  are 
religious,  I  mean  that  they  all  are  expressions  of 
some  phase  of  the  divine  life.  Is  there  sorrow? 
it  is  because  of  separation  from  God  ;  joy  ?  it  is 


308      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

because  of  the  presence  of  God ;  confession  ?  it  is 
of  sin  against  God  ;  praise  ?  it  is  praise  of  God.  No 
songs  of  lovers  to  their  mistresses,  or  of  maidens 
to  victors  in  war  or  athletic  contests  ;  no  dirges 
over  the  bodies  of  the  dead  ;  no  marriage  songs ; 
no  glorification  of  nature :  all  is  sacred,  all  divine. 
And  if  we  may  believe  that  these  collections  are 
simply  relics  selected  from  a  much  greater  mass  of 
Hebrew  lyrical  poetry  which  has  now  perished,^ 
then  we  must  either  suppose  that  substantially  all 
the  lyrics  of  the  Hebrew  people  were  religious  in 
their  character,  or  else  that  only  those  which  were 
religious  found  such  a  place  in  popular  esteem  that 
they  were  preserved  from  oblivion.  The  former 
is  probably  the  case.  The  Hebrew  people  were  per- 
meated by  the  spirit  of  religion.  Their  laws,  their 
customs,  their  festivals,  their  dramas,  their  fiction, 
their  folk-lore,  their  proverbs,  their  popular  songs, 
all  were  pervaded  by  their  faith  in  Jehovah  as  the 
God,  the  King,  the  Father  of  their  nation.  This  is 
the  first  and  most  notable  fact  which  confronts  us 
at  every  turn  in  our  study  of  Hebrew  literature  ; 
the  spiritual  significance  of  this  fact  I  leave  to  be 
considered  in  the  closing  chapter  of  this  volume. 

Poetry  is  difficult,  perhaps  impossible  to  define. 
It  may  be  said,  however,  to  have  two  characteris- 
tics, —  one  an  artificial  beauty  in  form,  the  other  a 
vital  beauty  in  spirit.  The  most  exquisite  figures 
of  imagination,  the  greatest  intensity   of  emotion, 

1  As  is  doubtless  the  case  with  the  Greek  lyrics.  SjTnonds, 
Greek  Poets,  i.  p.  293. 


A    COLLECTION   OF  LYRICS  309 

unaccompanied  by  the  peculiar  beauty  of  form 
which  belongs  to  poeti'y  may  constitute  poetical 
prose,  but  not  poetry :  it  is  prose,  though  it  may 
be  poetical  prose  ;  the  most  perfect  beauty  of 
form,  if  it  clothes  ui) poetical  ideas,  is  not  poetry. 
In  English  literature  the  form  consists  of  one  of 
two  elements,  —  rhyme  or  rhythm.  Hebrew  poetry 
contained  neither.  The  formal  characteristic  of  He- 
brew poetry  consisted  in  certain  artificial  arrange- 
ments of  the  lines,  in  parallelism,  as  :  — 

"  Bless  the  Lord,  0  ray  soul, 
And  all  that  is  within  me  bless  his  holy  name :  "  N. 

or  in  antithesis,  as  :  — 

"  Thou  openest  thine  hand,  they  are  satisfied  with  good  ; 
Thou  hidest  thy  face,  they  are  troubled  ;  " 

or  in  the  repetition  of  a  certain  refrain  at  the  end 
of  each  verse  or  paragraph,  such  as  in  Psalm 
cxxxvi.,  "  His  mercy  endureth  forever,"  or  as  in 
Psalms  xlii.  and  xlviii.,  really  one  Psalm,  acci- 
dentally or  erroneously  divided,  the  refrain  :  — 

"  Why  art  thou  cast  down,  0  my  soul, 
And  why  art  thou  disquieted  within  me  ? 
Hope  thou  in  God  :  for  I  shall  yet  praise  him 
For  the  health  of  his  countenance." 

or  a  dramatic  interplay  of  characters  as  between^ 
the    soul,    the    prophet,    and    Jehovah   in   Psalm 
xci. :  — 

The  Soul.     "  He  that  dwelleth  in  the  secret  place  of  the  most, 
high  / 

Shall  abide  under  the  shadow  of  the  almig'hty. 
I  will  say  to  Jehovah,  my  refuge  and  my  fortress, 
My  God  in  whom  I  trust. 


310      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   TUE   HEBREWS 

The  Prophet.     "  For  he  shall  deliver  thee  from  the  snare  of  the 
fowler 
And  from  the  noisome  pestilence. 
He  shall  cover  thee  with  his  pinions, 
And  under  his  wings  shalt  thou  take  refuge. 

.  .  .  Jehovah.    "  Because  he  hath  set  his  love  upon  me  therefore 
■will  I  deliver  him  : 
I  will  set  him  on  high  because  he  hath  known  my  name. 
He  shall  call  upon  me  and  I  will  answer  him  ; 
I  will  be  with  him  in  trouble  ; 
I  will  deliver  him  and  honor  him. 
With  long  life  will  I  satisfy  him, 
And  show  him  my  salvation." 

All  these  forms  are  illustrated  by  Psalm  xxiv., 
as  sung  by  a  procession  of  priests  and  people  on 
some  great  festal  day.  The  reader  must  imagine 
Jerusalem  full  of  pilgrims  gathered  from  all  parts 
of  Palestine  ;  a  great  procession  formed  in  the  city  ; 
priests  leading  the  way  ;  a  band  of  music  composed 
of  lyres,  viols,  reeds,  cymbals,  tambourines,  casta- 
nets, drums,  trumpets,  accompanying  it.  The  pro- 
cession reaches  the  Temple  gates,  which  are  closed  ; 
and  the  following  musical  colloquy  takes  place :  — 

Chorus  in  procession.     "  The  earth  is  the  Lord's  and  the  fullness 
thereof ; 
The  world,  and  they  that  dwell  therein. 
For  he  hath  founded  it  upon  the  seas, 
And  established  it  upon  the  floods. 

Priest ;  a  solo.     "  Who  shall  ascend  into  the  hill  of  the  Lord  ? 
And  who  shall  stand  in  his  holy  place  ? 

Another  Priest,  responding.     "  He  that  hath  clean  hands,  and  a 
pure  heart ; 
Who  hath  not  lifted  up  his  soul  unto  vanity, 
And  hath  not  sworn  deceitfully. 
He  shall  receive  a  blessing  from  the  Lord, 
And  righteousness  from  the  God  of  his  salvation. 


A   COLLECTION'   OF  LYRICS  311 

Chorus,  in  procession.     "  Tliis  is  the  generation  of  them  that 
seek  after  him, 
That  seek  thy  face,  O  God  of  Jacob. 

Chorus,  at  Temple  gate.     "  Lift  up  your  heads,  O  ye  gates  ; 
And  be  ye  lift  up,  ye  everlasting  doors : 
And  the  King  of  glory  shall  come  in. 

Response  from  within.     "  Wlio  is  the  King  of  glory  ? 

Chorus,  without.     "  The  Lord  strong  and  mighty, 
The  Lord  mighty  in  battle. 
Lift  up  your  heads,  0  ye  gates  ; 
Yea,  lift  them  up,  ye  everlasting  doors  : 
And  the  King  of  glory  shall  come  in.  " 

Then  the  gates  are  thrown  open,  and  the  proces- 
sion enters  while  the  priestly  doorkeeper  repeats 
the  question :  — 

"  Who  is  this  King  of  glory  ?  " 

and  the  procession  chants  the  reply  :  — 

"  The  Lord  of  hosts. 
He  is  the  King  of  glory." 

The  spirit  of  poetry  it  is  much  more  difficult  to 
define.  Without  attempting  anything  so  ambitious, 
I  will  venture  to  assume  that  the  spirit  of  true 
poetry  includes  at  least  two  elements  :  truth  and 
beauty.  There  are  two  worlds,  an  outer  and  an 
inner  ;  a  world  of  sense  and  a  world  supersensu- 
ous  ;  a  world  which  we  enter  through  the  eye  and 
the  ear,  and  a  world  which  we  enter  through  the 
emotion  and  the  imagination.  To  see  clearly  this 
inner,  this  invisible,  this  real  and  eternal  world, 
and  so  to  translate  it  into  outward  form  that  men 
with  less  power  of  vision  can  see  it  also,  this  is  the 
function  of  the  artist,  the  musician,  and  the  poet. 


312      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

Their  end  is  the  same,  their  instruments  are  differ- 
ent. No  man  is  a  true  poet  unless  he  first  of  all 
sees  what  other  men  of  less  poetic  genius  have 
failed  to  see,  and  then  through  literary  forms  inter- 
prets this  vision  to  others.  "  The  function  of  the 
imagination,"  says  Hamilton  W.  Mabie,  "  is  two- 
fold :  to  see  things  in  their  essential  nature  and 
their  universal  relations,  and  to  give  them  concrete 
form."  ^  This  is  the  function  of  the  poet ;  and  what 
we  have  to  ask  ourselves  about  the  Hebrew  lyric 
poets  is.  What  did  they  see  or  think  they  saw 
respecting  the  essential  nature  of  God  and  his  rela- 
tion to  nature  and  to  men  ?  We  are  not  to  ask, 
What  is  their  theology  ?  Strictly  speaking,  the 
poet  has  no  theology.  He  is  an  observer,  not 
a  philosopher ;  but  an  observer  of  the  invisible 
world  ;  he  tells  us  what  he  has  seen,  and  leaves  us 
to  correlate  the  visions  with  each  other,  and  with 
the  visions  of  other  poets,  and  with  the  facts  of  the 
outer  world,  and  out  of  all  this  material  construct 
a  philosophy.  The  poet  precedes  the  philosopher 
as  the  observer  precedes  the  scientist.  Our  ques- 
tion is  not,  What  was  the  theology  of  the  Hebrew 
poets  ?  though  out  of  their  poems  we  can  construct 
a  quasi  theology ;  but,  How  did  they  see  God  ?  how 
did  he  seem  to  them  in  his  essential  character  and 
in  his  relations  to  Nature  and  to  men? 

For  this  much  is  evident  concerning  these  He- 
brew lyrics,  that  they  are  expressions  of  experience. 
They  are  not  works  of  art,  that  is,  they  were  not 
^  Essays  on  Nature  and  Culture,  p.  85. 


A   COLLECTION   OF  LYRICS  313 

written  for  artistic  effect ;  they  are  not  dramatic, 
that  is,  they  are  not  the  imagined  experiences  of 
others.  They  have  sprung  out  of  the  heart  of  the 
poets,  that  is,  out  of  the  heart  of  the  nation,  and 
are  artless  expressions  of  the  experiences  of  their 
authors.  In  them,  therefore,  are  varied  experi- 
ences :  love  and  hate,  joy  and  sorrow,  faith  and 
doubt,  hope  and  despair ;  experiences  in  victory  and 
in  defeat,  in  temptation,  in  repentance,  and  in 
restoration  ;  at  home  and  in  exile ;  surrounded  by 
friends  and  environed  by  enemies.  They  include, 
therefore,  songs  of  praise  and  songs  of  penitence  ; 
songs  national  and  songs  individual ;  songs  eccle- 
siastical and  songs  for  the  household  ;  songs  of 
ebullient  joy  and  songs  that  are  one  long  jjlaint 
of  sorrow ;  songs  of  triumphant  victory  and  songs 
of  spiritual  struggle.  It  is  hardly  too  much  to  say 
that  every  phase  of  religious  opinion  which  has 
ever  found  voice  in  sacred  poetry  is  to  be  found 
expressed  in  some  form  in  this  collection  of  Hebrew 
lyrics.  They  are  not  all  expressions  of  saintly 
faith  and  hope  and  love  ;  sometimes  the  weakness 
of  the  soul  is  fully  recognized  and  frankly  con- 
fessed :  — 

"  Will  the  Lord  cast  olf  forever  ? 
And  •will  he  be  favorable  no  more  ? 
Is  his  mercy  clean  gone  forever  ? 
Doth  his  promise  fail  for  evermore  ? 
Hath  God  forgotten  to  be  gracious  ? 
Hath  he  in  anger  shut  up  his  tender  mercies  ? 
And  I  said,  This  is  my  infirmity  ; 

But  I  will  remember  the  years  of  the  right  hand  of  the  Jlost 
High. 


314      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE   OF   THE   HEBREWS 

I  will  make  mention  of  the  deeds  of  the  Lord ; 
For  I  will  remember  thy  wonders  of  old."  '• 

Sometimes  impassioned  emotions,  natural  but 
not  saintly,  find  expression  in  them.  This  is  the 
case  in  the  so-called  imprecatory  Psalms,^  which 
have  been  in  all  times  a  source  of  great  ethical  jjer- 
plexity  to  Bible  students.  Imagine  the  people  of 
Israel  prisoners  in  Babylon  ;  their  holy  city  de- 
stroyed ;  the  sacred  Temple  razed  to  the  ground ; 
many  of  their  fellows  put  to  the  sword  ;  their  chil- 
dren killed,  their  women  ravished  before  their  eyes. 
Their  captors  deride  their  religion,  taunting  them 
with  the  question.  Where  is  now  thy  God  ?  and 
derisively  calling  on  them  to  sing  their  temple 
songs  to  him  who  has  abandoned  them  to  desola- 
tion ;  and  this  is  the  answer  of  one  of  their  poets : 

"  By  the  rivers  of  Babylon 
There  we  sat  down,  yea,  we  wept, 
When  we  remembered  Zion. 
Upon  the  willows  in  the  midst  thereof 
We  hanged  up  our  harps. 

For  there  they  that  led  us  captive  required  of  us  songs, 
And  they  that  wasted  us  required  of  us  mirth,  saying, 
Sing  us  one  of  the  songs  of  Zion. 
How  shall  we  sing  the  Lord's  song  in  a  strange  land  ? 

0  daughter  of  Babylon,  that  art  to  be  destroyed ; 
Happy  shall  he  be  that  rewardeth  thee 

As  thou  hast  served  us. 

1  Psalm  Ixxvii.  7-11. 

^  Such  as  Psalms  lix.,  Ixix.,  cix.,  cxxxvii.  Observe  that  Psalm 
cxxxix.  21,  22,  indicates  that  these  are  imprecations  not  on  per- 
sonal enemies  but  on  enemies  of  God. 


A   COLLECTION   OF  LYRICS  315 

Happy  shall  he  be  that  taketh  and  dasheth  thy  little  ones 
Against  the  rock."  ^ 

How,  it  is  asked,  can  such  a  Psalm  be  reconciled 
with  Christ's  command,  "  Love  your  enemies,  and 
pray  for  them  that  persecute  you  "  ?  It  cannot  be 
reconciled  with  that  command.  It  is  not  a  divinely 
inspired  example  to  be  imitated  ;  it  is  a  very  human 
experience  to  be  shunned.  It  indicates  the  mean- 
ins  of  Christ's  command  and  illustrates  his  ex- 
ample  by  setting  in  contrast  with  it  the  natural 
feeling  of  a  truly  devout  soul  under  persecution. 
And  yet  in  one  respect  the  Psalm  is  inspiring  and 
worthy  of  imitation.  Devout  people  need  to  be 
inspired  with  hatred  of  cant  —  of  the  spirit  which 
incites  us  to  say  to  God  not  what  we  think,  but 
what  we  think  he  thinks  we  ought  to  think.  To 
be  sincere,  simple,  genuine,  transparent  with  God, 
to  dare  to  show  him  our  worst  as  well  as  our  best, 
to  dare  to  ask  him  to  search  us  and  see  if  there  be 
any  evil  way  in  us,  to  treat  him  as  we  treat  the 
physician,  pointing  out  to  him  everything  in  us 
that  he  may  teach  us  what  is  evil  and  what  is  good, 
and  how  to  abhor  the  evil  and  to  cleave  to  the 
good,  to  treat  him  as  our  best  and  most  intimate 
friend,  from  whom  we  wish  to  conceal  nothing  — 
this  is  one  of  the  lessons  which  the  unreserved 
candor  of  these  ancient  lyrics  teaches,  and  which 
the  church  still  has  need  to  learn. 

We  are  not,  then,  to  regard  the  Book  of  Psalms 
as  a  collection  of  lyrics  written  by  artists  "  for  art's 
1  Psalm  cxxxvii.  1-4, 8,  9. 


316      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   TUE   HEBREWS 

sake ; "  nor  as  dramatic  interpretations  of  experi- 
ences imagined  by  the  writer  to  be  acceptable  to 
God  ;  nor  as  embodying  a  system  of  divine  truth  or 
even  the  contents  of  such  a  system  ;  nor  as  inspired 
revelations  of  experiences  which  being  divinely 
created  are  to  be  blindly  imitated.  We  are  to  re- 
gard it  as  the  actual  expression  of  the  experiences 
of  a  devout  people  to  be  studied  that  we  may  es- 
cape their  doubts,  their  despair,  their  hate,  their 
tumultuous  trouble,  and  may  secure  their  faith, 
their  hope,  their  love,  their  peace  ;  the  better  guide 
for  us  in  our  times  of  doubt  and  fear,  because  writ- 
ten by  those  who  had  like  experiences  and  out  of 
them  were  conducted,  as  Israel  out  of  the  Red  Sea, 
by  their  God.  The  experience  of  these  waiters  is 
not  always  congruous  ;  but  there  are  certain  funda- 
mental elements  common  to  their  experiences  ;  and 
from  them  we  may  deduce,  not  indeed  a  coherent 
s^'stem  of  theology,  but  a  united  testimony  respect- 
ing certain  aspects  of  the  divine  life. 

Conceiving,  then,  this  book  as  an  anthology  of 
sacred  lyrics  respecting  the  deeper  religious  experi- 
ences of  this  Hebrew  people  during  eight  centu- 
ries of  their  national  life,  we  ask  ourselves  what 
are  the  distinguishing  characteristics  of  the  experi- 
ences which  it  interprets. 

The  most  fundamental  fact  is  that  God  is 
throughout  these  lyrics  felt  as  a  universal  Pre- 
sence. Long  before  the  docti'ine  of  divine  im- 
manence was  thought  out  in  theology,  long  be- 
fore Herbert  Spencer  had  formulated  the  result  of 


A    COLLECTION   OF  LYRICS  317 

philosophy  in  the  phrase,  "  Amid  all  the  mysteries 
by  which  we  are  surrounded  notliing  is  more  certain 
than  that  we  are  ever  in  the  presence  of  an  Infinite 
and  Eternal  Energy  from  which  all  things  pro- 
ceed," these  ancient  poets  had  realized  this  fact  as 
an  experience.  It  is  sometimes  said  that  the  He- 
brew conception  of  the  deity  was  anthropomorphic. 
If  by  this  is  meant  that  the  ancient  Hebrews  con- 
ceived of  God  as  having  experiences  interpreted 
to  us  by  human  experiences,  —  joy  and  soitow, 
\io^e  and  regret,  love  and  wrath,  —  it  is  true  ;  if 
by  it  is  meant  that  they  conceived  of  him  as  em- 
bodied as  a  man,  it  certainly  is  not  true  of  these 
Hebrew  singers.  They  sometimes  conceived  of 
him  as  in  his  holy  temple,  sometimes  as  on  his 
throne  in  the  heavens,  but  at  the  same  time  as  on 
the  earth  beholding  and  trying  the  children  of 
meu.^  He  was  to  them  a  Universal  Presence.  I 
know  not  where  in  literature,  ancient  or  modern, 
can  be  found  a  sublimer  expression  of  faith  in  a 
divine  Spirit  who  transcends  all  space  relations, 
than  in  the  one  hundred  and  thirty-ninth  Psalm  :  — 

"  Whither  shall  I  g'o  from  thy  spirit  ? 

Or  whither  shall  I  flee  from  thy  presence  ? 

If  I  ascend  up  into  heaven,  thou  art  there  : 

If  I  make  ray  bed  in  Sheol,  behold,  thou  art  there. 

If  I  take  the  wing's  of  the  morning-, 

And  dwell  in  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  sea ; 

Even  there  shall  thy  hand  lead  me, 

And  thy  right  hand  shall  hold  me. 

If  I  say,  Surely  the  darkness  shall  overwhelm  me, 

^  Psalm  xi.  4. 


318      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

And  the  lig-ht  about  me  shall  be  night ; 

Even  the  darkness  hideth  not  from  thee, 

But  the  night  shineth  as  the  day  : 

The  darkness  and  the  light  are  both  alike  to  thee." 

Yet  the  reader  will  observe  that  this  is  not  a 
theory  of  divine  immanence ;  it  is  not,  like  Her- 
bert Spencer's  formula,  a  deduction  from  an  exami- 
nation of  the  mysteries  by  which  we  are  surrounded. 
The  Presence  is  felt,  realized,  experienced ;  the 
Psalm  is  a  testimony  ;  wheresoever  the  writer  goes 
he  finds  his  God.  The  scientist  might  conclude 
that  God  is  eveiywhere  and  yet  never  be  person- 
ally conscious  of  his  presence.  This  writer  draws 
no  conclusion,  makes  no  generic  scientific  state- 
ment ;  he  simply  says,  God  is  everywhere  present 
with  me  ;  I  am  conscious  of  him. 

No  other  Psalm  states  this  as  clearly,  as  defi- 
nitely, as  the  one  hundred  and  thirty-ninth,  but 
this  experience  of  God  as  a  universal  presence 
underlies,  pervades,  characterizes,  all  these  lyrics. 
They  are  illuminated  by  this  God-consciousness. 
It  is  this  realization  of  a  divine  presence  which 
gives  peculiar  sublimity  to  the  Nature  Psalms. 
These  are  not  praises  of  nature  ;  they  are  not  glow- 
ing nor  picturesque,  nor  awe-inspiring  portrayals 
of  natural  phenomena.  They  have  no  resemblance 
to  Lord  Byron's  description  of  the  thunderstorm 
in  the  Alps  or  John  Keats'  ode  to  Ben  Nevis. 
They  do  not  personify  these  phenomena  and  re- 
present them  as  in  themselves  living  entities. 
There  is  in  them  no  hint  of  local  deities,  or  sprites, 


A   COLLECTION   OF  LYRICS  319 

or  fairies,  or  dragons,  malicious,  mischievous,  or 
beneficent.  Nature  is  alive  ;  but  the  life  is  that  of 
Jehovah,  and  what  inspires  the  poet  is  not  the 
phenomenon  but  the  God  who  is  behind  the  phe- 
nomenon. In  the  thunderstorm  Jehovah  bows 
the  heavens  and  comes  down  ;  the  darkness  is  his 
hiding  place ;  the  clouds  are  his  pavilion ;  the 
lightnings  are  his  arrows.^  He  is  no  less  in  the 
milder  phases  of  nature's  life.  "  He  sends  forth 
the  springs  into  the  valleys ;  "  "  he  causeth  grass 
to  grrow  for  cattle  and  herbs  for  the  service  of 
man  ;  "  he  makes  the  darkness  and  it  is  night  when 
all  the  beasts  of  the  forest  do  creep  forth  ;  the 
young  lions  seek  their  meat  from  him ;  all  living 
things  wait  on  him ;  what  they  gather  he  gives ; 
when  he  hides  his  face  they  are  troubled.^  Every- 
thing, therefore,  in  nature  gives  praise  to  Jehovah. 
All  phenomena  constitute  a  great  orchestra  ranged 
together  and  in  harmony ;  at  the  command  of 
the  leader  they  glorify  him.  The  heavens  rejoice  ; 
the  earth  is  glad  ;  the  sea  roars  ;  the  fields  are 
joyful ;  the  trees  of  the  wood  rejoice.^  The  whole 
world  is  one  vast  cathedi-al,  and  all  things  in  it 
are  a  great  chorus,  "  and  in  his  temple  everything 
saith,  Glory."  *  The  poet  recognizes  no  difference 
in  this  respect  between  different  phenomena  ;  the 
terrible  things  in  nature  as  well  as  the  beautiful 
declare  Jehovah's  praise.  There  is  reverence  for 
Jehovah,  awe  in  his  presence,  but  no  dread  of  him. 

1  Psalm  xviii.  7-17.  '^  See  Psalm  civ. 

*  See  Psalm  xcvi.  *  Psalm  xsix.  9,  Rev.  Vers. 


320      LIFE   AND    LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

That  he  is  king  and  reigneth ;  that  he  is  to  be 
feared  above  all  gods  ;  that  he  is  a  righteous  judge 
and  is  coming  to  judge  the  people  with  his  truth, 
are  causes  not  for  fear  but  for  rejoicing.^  Plu- 
tarch in  an  eloquent  passage  has  described  the  im- 
pression produced  on  the  pagan  mind  by  belief  in 
the  universal  presence  of  the  deity  :  "  He  fears  not 
the  sea  who  never  goes  to  sea  ;  nor  a  battle  who 
follows  not  the  camp ;  nor  robbei'S  that  stirs  not 
abroad ;  nor  malicious  informers  that  is  a  poor 
man  ;  nor  earthquakes  that  dwells  in  Gaul ;  nor 
thunderbolts  that  dwells  in  Ethiopia  ;  but  he  that 
dreads  the  divine  powers  dreads  everything ;  the 
land,  the  sea,  the  air,  the  sky,  the  dark,  the  light, 
a  sound,  a  silence,  a  dream."  ^  Of  such  dread  of  the 
universal  presence  of  Jehovah  there  is  no  hint  in 
these  lyrics.  That  presence  iusi^ires  to  joy,  a  joy 
that  often  breaks  out  in  exultant  shouts,  —  halle- 
lujahs in  spirit  not  unlike  our  huzzahs.  In  this 
joy,  not  in  what  Jehovah  has  done  or  given,  but  in 
Jehovah  himself,  in  his  mere  presence,  everything 
is  called  on  to  unite.  Like  a  healthy  boy  whose 
spirits  must  find  vent,  the  poet  calls  for  noise,  "  a 
joyful  noise,"  unto  Jehovah.  All  instruments  are 
called  into  play  to  express  this  rejoicing :  the  harp, 
the  timbrel,  the  psaltery,  the  trumpet,  the  cornet, 
the  pipe,  the  stringed  instruments,  the  loud-sound- 
ing cymbals.^     Nor  is  this  enough.     Like  the  lover 

^  See  Psalms  xcv.,  xcvi.  ^  Plutarch's  Morals,  i.  169. 

^  Psalms  Ixxxi.  1-3 ;  xcv.  1,  2  ;  xcviii.  4-6  ;  c.  1 ;  cxlix.  3  ;  cl. 
3-5. 


A   COLLECTION  OF  LYRICS  321 

he  calls  on  nature  to  join  in  his  rejoicing,  the  high 
and  the  low,  the  awful  and  the  beautiful,  the  old 
and  the  young  :  — 

"  Praise  the  Lord  from  the  earth, 
Ye  dragons  and  all  deeps  : 
Fire  and  hail,  snow  and  vapor : 
Stormy  wind,  fulfilling  his  word  : 
Mountains  and  all  hills  ; 
Fruitful  trees  and  all  cedars  : 
Beasts  and  all  cattle  ; 
Creeping  things  and  flying  fowl ; 
Kings  of  the  earth  and  all  peoples  ; 
Princes  and  all  judges  of  the  earth  : 
Both  young  men  and  maidens  ; 
Old  men  and  children  : 
Let  them  praise  the  name  of  the  Lord  ; 
For  his  name  alone  is  exalted  : 
His  glory  is  above  the  earth  and  heaven."  ^ 

This  presence  of  Jehovah  is  seen  not  alone  in 
nature ;  it  is  the  secret  of  the  nation's  greatness. 
The  great  national  lyrics  are  not  praises  to  the 
nation's  great  men :  there  are  no  odes  to  Moses  or 
Joshua  or  David  or  Solomon,^  none  to  the  great 
prophets  or  leaders  of  Israel ;  these  are  all  forgot- 
ten in  the  absorbing  brilliance  of  Jehovah's  glory. 
It  is  not  Moses  who  delivered  Israel  frona  Egypt, 
it  is  Jehovah :  Jehovah  who  "  brought  them  forth 
with  silver  and  gold,"  Jehovah  who  rebuked  the 
Red  Sea  and  led  his  people  through  the  depths  "  as 
through  a  pasture  land,"  Jehovah  who  "  spread  a 

1  Psalm  cxlviii.  7-13. 

2  Unless  Psalms  xlv.  and  Ixxii.  are  exceptions :  the  former  is 
a  royal  wedding  hymn  ;  the  latter  I  regard  as  Messianic,  indirectly 
if  not  directly. 


322      LIFE  AND   LITERATURE   OF   THE  HEBREWS 

cloud  for  a  covering  and  a  fire  to  give  light  in  the 
night ;  "  it  was  not  Joshua  who  conquered  Canaan, 
it  was  Jehovah  who  "  smote  many  nations  and  slew 
mighty  kings,"  and  gave  their  land  for  an  heritage 
to  Israel  his  servant.^  Let  the  reader  compare 
with  these  Hebrew  national  hymns  our  own  "  Amer- 
ica." In  ours  the  voice  is  one  of  praise  to  the  land 
where  our  fathers  died,  land  of  the  noble  free,  land 
of  the  woods  and  templed  hills,  land  vocal  with 
freedom's  song ;  only  in  the  last  verse  is  there  any 
recognition  of  God  as  the  "  author  of  liberty ;  " 
the  Hebrew  national  lyrics  are  vehicles  of  the  one 
theme.  Praise  to  Jehovah,  who  made  the  fruitful 
land  and  gave  it  to  his  people,  whom  he  delivered, 
counseled,  guided,  ruled,  forgave,  redeemed,  with 
a  mercy  which  endureth  forever.  Even  when  the 
topic  of  the  Psalm  is  a  longing  in  exile  for  the  sing- 
ers' native  land,  the  heart-longing  is  expressed  as 
for  Mount  Zion,  the  Temple,  and  the  Holy  City, 
made  holy  because  it  is  the  city  whither  the  tribes 
go  up  to  give  thanks  unto  the  name  of  Jehovah.^ 

But  in  the  experience  of  these  Hebrew  lyrical 
poets  Jehovah  is  not  only  the  God  of  nature  and 
the  God  of  the  nation  ;  he  is  not  only  present  in 
nature  and  in  national  history ;  he  is  a  personal 
friend  ever  present  in  the  individual  life.  He  is 
the  poet's  companion  :  a  shepherd  who  causes  him 
to  lie  down  in  green  pastures,  leads  him  beside  stiU 

1  Psalms  cv.,  cvi.,  cxxxv.,  cxxxvi.   See,  also,  Ixxri.,  Ixxvlii.,  cxiv., 
cxviii. 

*  Psalms  cxxii.,  cxxv.,  cxxvi. 


A   COLLECTION  OF  LYRICS  323 

waters,  restores  him  when  wandering,  leads  him  in 
right  paths,  is  his  fellow  traveler  in  the  valley  of 
the  shadow  of  death,  and  spreads  for  him  a  table 
while  his  enemies  look  on  amazed  and  unable  to 
disturb  his  meal.  Jehovah  knew  the  poet  before 
he  was  born ;  was  at  his  birth  and  brought  him 
forth  into  the  light  of  life ;  taught  him  the  right 
way  in  which  to  walk  ;  in  the  time  of  danger  pro- 
tected him  as  the  mother  bird  protects  her  young 
from  the  hawk ;  is  a  very  present  help  to  him  in 
trouble  ;  is  ever  at  his  right  hand  so  that  he  has  no 
fear ;  in  times  of  great  anxiety  puts  him  to  sleep 
as  a  nurse  a  wearied,  worried  child  ;  is  his  rock 
and  his  fortress  delivering  him  from  his  enemies  ; 
and  when  he  transgresses,  accepts  his  confession 
and  forgives  his  sin.^  It  is  impossible  to  conceive 
these  poets  as  considering  it  a  question  whether 
there  is  a  God.  To  their  thinking  it  is  only  a  fool 
who  saith,  "  There  is  no  God."  ^  To  them  Jehovah 
is  personally  known  ;  he  is  my  king,  my  refuge, 
viy  God.  An  ownership  of  love  and  loyalty  like 
the  ownership  of  the  citizen  in  his  king,  the  child 
in  his  father,  the  wife  in  her  husband,  is  estab- 
lished, recognized,  maintained.  God  is  in  the  poet's 
experience.  To  be  separated  from  his  God  is  the 
sorest  evil  in  his  captivity;  to  hear  his  God  in- 
sulted with  the  cry,  "  Where  is  now  thy  God  ?  "  is 
of  all  taunts  the  hardest  to  bear  ;  to  realize  that  he 

1  Psalms  xxiii. ;    cxxxix.  15,  16;   xxii.  9;  xxv.  8;   xxviL  11; 
Ivii.  1 ;  xlvi.  1 ;  xvi.  8 ;  iii.  5 ;  xxzi.  3  ;  li.  1,  2. 
^  Psalm  xiv.  1. 


324      LIFE   AND    LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

has  sinned  against  his  God  brings  on  him  a  re- 
morse which  for  the  time  obliterates  all  sense  of 
sin  against  himself  and  against  his  neighbor : 
"  Against  thee,  thee  only,  have  I  sinned,"  he  cries. 
Jehovah  is  with  him  in  all  the  commonplace  ex- 
periences of  life :  makes  his  feet  nimble  to  run 
through  the  troop  of  his  enemies,  to  leap  the  wall 
and  escape  when  they  pursue  him  ;  makes  his  foot- 
ing sure  as  he  climbs  the  dangerous  cliffs  ;  makes 
his  arm  strong  to  bend  the  bow  of  brass.^  Sorrow 
only  drives  him  to  God  as  his  refuge;  through 
doubts  and  despair  he  struggles  on  toward  hope  — 
toward  hope  in  Jehovah  his  God ;  the  gentleness 
of  Jehovah  makes  him  great,  the  loving  kindness  of 
Jehovah  fills  his  cup  to  overflowing,  the  mercy 
of  Jehovah  forgives  his  sins  and  restores  his  soul.^ 
For  not  even  the  poet's  sins  can  separate  him  from 
his  God ;  his  God  is  a  healer,  a  redeemer,  a  physi- 
cian of  souls.  This  is  the  final,  the  transcendent 
fact  in  the  experience  of  the  Hebrew  singer. 

"  Bless  Jehovah,  O  my  soul ; 
And  all  that  is  within  me,  bless  his  holy  name. 
Bless  Jehovah,  0  my  soul, 
And  forget  not  all  his  benefits  : 
Who  forgiveth  all  thine  iniquities  ; 
Who  healeth  all  thy  diseases  ; 
Who  redeemeth  thy  life  from  destruction  ; 
Who  crowneth  thee  with  lovingkindness  and  tender  mercies ; 
Who  satisfieth  thy  years  -with  good  ; 
So  that  thy  youth  is  renewed  like  the  eagle."  * 

^  Psalm  xviii.  28-35. 

2  Psalm  xviii.  35;  see  also  Psalm  xxiii.  3,  5  ;  Ixxxvi.  5. 

^  Psalm  ciii.  1-5. 


A   COLLECTION  OF  LYRICS  325 

*'A11  thine  iniquities" — tlie  adultery  and  cruel 
treachery  of  David  not  too  great  to  be  forgiven ; 
"  all  thy  diseases  "  —  the  pride  and  sensuality  of 
Solomon  not  too  deep-seated  to  be  cured ;  "  re- 
deemeth  thy  life  from  destruction "  —  he  that 
would  destroy  himself  is  redeemed  from  his  self- 
destruction  by  Jehovah  ;  "  crowneth  thee  with  lov- 
ingkindness  and  tender  mercies  "  —  with  kindness 
that  comes  from  personal  love,  with  tending  mer- 
cies that  nurse  the  sick  back  into  life  again  ;  "  sat- 
isfieth  thy  years  with  good  so  that  thy  youth  is 
renewed  like  the  eagle's  "  —  making  old  age  more 
full  of  a  serener  hope  than  youth  with  all  its  eager 
and  sometimes  exasperating  expectations. 

Modern  theology  might  well  go  back  to  this  lyric 
of  an  ancient  and  unknown  past  to  learn  some  les- 
sons about  God.  Here  is  no  hint  of  some  one  to 
pay  the  debt,  to  satisfy  the  law,  to  appease  the 
wrath.  The  sacrifices  of  God  are  a  broken  spirit ; 
for  his  own  name's  sake  he  pardons  the  penitent's 
iniquities  ;  according  to  his  lovingkindness,  accord- 
ing to  the  multitude  of  his  tender  mercies,  he  blots 
out  the  repentant's  transgressions  ;  and  their  great- 
ness does  not  prevent ;  on  the  contrary,  he  pardons 
them  because  they  are  great.^  Christ's  parable  of 
the  Prodigal  Son  he  borrowed  and  elaborated  from 
the  Hebrew  poet's  declaration,  "  Like  as  a  father 
pitieth  his  children,  so  Jehovah  pitieth  them  that 
fear  him."  Christ's  picture  of  himself  longing  to 
gather  Jerusalem  under  his   protection  as  a  hen 

1  Psalms  li.  11,  17  ;  xxv.  11 ;  Ixxix.  9. 


326      LIFE  AND   LITERATURE   OF  THE   HEBREWS 

gathers  her  chickens  under  her  wings  he  borrowed 
from  the  same  source  :  "  Under  his  pinions  will  I 
trust."  1 

One  truth  the  Hebrew  poet  did  not  know,  for 
Christ  had  not  yet  brought  life  and  immortality  to 
light :  he  did  not  know  of  the  future  life.  He  had 
hope  in  God,  and  on  that  hope  he  built  great  ex- 
pectations ;  but  they  were  for  his  nation  and  on 
this  earth.  But  he  was  sure  that  in  his  own  time 
and  in  his  own  way  Jehovah  in  whom  he  trusted 
would  at  last  come  for  the  redemption  of  Israel, 
and  would  bring  deliverance  not  to  Israel  only,  but 
to  all  the  nations  of  the  earth. 

"  For  he  shall  deliver  the  needy  when  he  crieth ; 
And  the  poor  that  hath  no  helper. 
He  shall  have  pity  on  the  poor  and  needy, 
And  the  souls  of  the  needy  shall  he  save. 

His  name  shall  endure  forever  ; 

His  name  shall  be  continued  as  long  as  the  sun ; 

And  men  shall  be  blessed  in  him  ; 

All  nations  shall  call  him  happy."  ^ 

It  would  be  strange  if  one  man  had  wrought  all 
this  out  in  his  own  experience  ;  strange  if  it  had 
been  all  supernaturally  revealed  in  one  man's  ex- 
perience ;  but  it  is  not  less  strange,  looking  back 
across  the  intervening  centuries  into  a  barbaric  age 
and  upon  a  barbaric  nation,  to  find  in  eight  centu- 
ries and  a  half  of  song  all  the  ripened  fruit  of 
Christian  experience  suggested,  except  only  the 
assurance  of  immortality.  A  God  who  is  a  uni- 
*  Psalm  ciii.  13 ;  xci.  4.  ^  Psalm  Ixxii.  12-17. 


A    COLLECTION   OF  LYRICS  327 

Versal  presence ;  a  God  who  is  in  all  nature  and 
with  the  nations  of  the  earth  ;  a  God  who  cares 
for  the  children  of  men  ;  a  God  who  cares  for  the 
beasts  of  the  forest ;  a  God  who  is  gentle,  patient, 
pitying,  rendering  an  unbought  mercy  out  of  his 
own  free  love,  forgiving  iniquities  because  they  are 
great  and  man  cannot  deliver  himself  from  them  ; 
a  God  who  saves  men  even  from  their  own  self- 
willed  destruction  and  who  crowns  them  with  a 
kindness  that  is  full  of  love  and  a  mercy  that  is 
full  of  nursing ;  a  God  who  gives  promise  of  One 
who  shall  come  in  time,  to  make  clearer  revelations 
of  his  judgment,  of  his  deliverance,  of  his  power, 
and  of  his  grace  —  something  such  as  this  seems  to 
me  to  be  the  religious  teaching  of  eight  centuries 
and  a  half  of  the  unparalleled  lyric  song  contained 
in  the  Hebrew  psalter. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

PREACHERS   OF   RIGHTEOUSNESS 

In  Bagster's  edition,  the  Old  Testament  occupies 
five  hundred  and  eighty-five  pages ;  of  these,  one 
hundred  and  fifty-four  are  occupied  by  the  Books 
of  the  Prophets  ;  that  is,  more  than  one  quarter  of 
the  entire  literature  of  the  ancient  Hebrews,  as  it 
is  preserved  in  our  Protestant  Bibles,  is  prophetic 
literature.  This  fact  roughly  indicates  the  impor- 
tance which  public  opinion  attached  to  the  work  of 
the  prophets,  and  the  extent  of  their  influence  upon 
their  nation  and  their  share  in  interpreting  its 
life.  What  was  the  function  of  the  prophet  among 
the  ancient  Hebrews  ?  Says  George  Adam  Smith  : 
*'  In  vulgar  use  the  name  '  prophet '  has  degene- 
rated to  the  meaning  of  '  one  who  foretells  the 
future.'  Of  this  meaning  it  is,  perhaps,  the  first 
duty  of  every  student  of  prophecy  earnestly  and 
stubbornly  to  rid  himself.  In  its  native  Greek 
tongue  '  prophet '  meant,  not  '  one  who  speaks  be- 
fore,' but  '  one  who  speaks  for,  or  on  behalf  of, 
another.'  It  is  in  this  sense  that  we  must  think 
of  the  '  prophet '  of  the  Old  Testament.  He  is  a 
speaker  for  God.  The  sharer  of  God's  counsels,  as 
Amos  calls  him,  he  becomes  the  bearer  and  preacher 


PREACHERS   OF  RIGHTEOUSNESS  329 

of  God's  word.  Prediction  of  the  future  is  only  a 
part,  and  often  a  subordinate  and  accidental  part, 
of  an  office  whose  full  function  is  to  declare  the 
character  and  the  will  of  God."  ^ 

I  ask  the  reader  of  this  volume  to  comply  with 
this  counsel,  and  earnestly  and  stubbornly  to  rid 
himself  of  the  idea  that  a  prophet  means  one  who 
foretells  events.  That  the  prophets  did  not  regard 
themselves  as  primarily  foretellers  is  clear  from 
the  character  of  their  writings,  only  a  very  insig- 
nificant part  of  which  is  taken  up  with  predictions 
of  any  kind.  In  those  predictions  they  did  not 
always  agree  with  one  another,  and  the  events  do 
not  always  occur  as  the  prophets  expected.  AVhen 
Jonah  told  the  people  of  Nineveh,  "  In  forty  days 
Nineveh  shall  be  destroyed,"  he  foretold  what  did 
not  come  to  pass.  "  God,"  says  the  sacred  writer, 
"  repented  of  the  evil  that  he  had  said  he  would  do 
unto  them,"  and,  as  an  historic  fact,  Nineveh  was 
not  destroyed  for  many  years  after  the  date  at 
which,  according  to  the  story,  the  prophecy  pur- 
ported to  be  delivered. 

Nor  did  the  prophets  themselves  regard  accuracy 
of  prediction  as  the  test  of  their  prophecy.  On  the 
contrary,  they  distinctly  repudiated  this  test.  One 
of  the  greatest  of  the  prophets,  the  author  of  the 
book  of  Deuteronomy,  written  six  or  seven  centu- 
ries before  Christ,  by  an  unknown  author,^  declares 
that   though   the  prophet  has  accurately  foretold 

1  The  Book  of  the  Twelve  Prophets,  vol.  i.  p.  12. 

2  See  chapter  v. 


330     LIFE  AND  LITERATURE   OF   THE  HEBREWS 

future  events,  and  his  witness  is  historically  sus- 
tained, if  his  teaching  does  not  sustain  loyalty  to 
Jehovah,  not  only  is  it  to  be  counted  of  no  value, 
but  he  himself  is  to  be  counted  worthy  of  death. 
He  says :  — 

"  If  there  arise  in  the  midst  of  thee  a  prophet,  or  a 
dreamer  of  dreams,  and  he  give  thee  a  sign  or  a  won- 
der, and  the  sign  or  the  wonder  come  to  pass,  whereof 
he  spake  unto  thee,  saying,  Let  us  go  after  other  gods, 
which  thou  hast  not  known,  and  let  us  serve  them ;  thou 
shalt  not  hearken  unto  the  words  of  that  prophet,  or  unto 
that  dreamer  of  dreams  :  for  the  Lord  your  God  proveth 
you,  to  know  whether  ye  love  the  Lord  your  God  with 
all  your  heart  and  with  all  your  soul.  Ye  shall  walk 
after  the  Lord  your  God,  and  fear  him,  and  keep  his 
commandments,  and  obey  his  voice,  and  ye  shall  serve 
him,  and  cleave  unto  him.  And  that  prophet,  or  that 
dreamer  of  dreams,  shaU  be  put  to  death ;  because  he 
hath  spoken  rebeUion  against  the  Lord  your  God,  which 
brought  you  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  redeemed 
thee  out  of  the  house  of  bondage,  to  draw  thee  aside  out 
of  the  way  which  the  Lord  thy  God  commanded  thee 
to  walk  in.  So  shalt  thou  put  away  the  evil  from  the 
midst  of  thee."  ^ 

If  the  prophet's  message  is  luminous  with  truth, 
if  it  is  inspiring,  if  it  presents  to  the  people  a 
grander  conception  of  God  than  they  have  before 
entertained  and  calls  them  back  to  a  more  right- 
eous life  in  his  service,  then,  and  only  then,  is  the 
messenger  to  be  accepted.     Not  by  any  miraculous 

1  Deat.  xiii.  1-5. 

4 


PREACHERS   OF  RIGHTEOUSNESS  331 

quality,  but  by  its  religious  spirit  and  character,  is 
the  teaching  of  the  prophet  to  be  measured.  Such 
is  the  standard  which  the  prophets  themselves  recog- 
nized as  that  by  which  all  prophetic  writings  are  to 
be  judged. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  see  how  the  other  conception, 
that  the  prophet  is  primarily  a  foreteller,  became 
prevalent.  In  the  first  place,  he  was  in  some  sense 
a  foreteller.  There  are  two  ways  in  which  men  are 
accustomed  to  decide  on  their  course  of  action  in  a 
time  of  doubt.  He  who  is  charged  with  the  respon- 
sibility of  decision  may  endeavor  to  peer  into  the 
future,  judge  what  will  be  the  probable  results  of 
the  alternative  courses,  and  by  the  anticipated  re- 
sults determine  the  wisdom  or  the  righteousness  of 
the  courses  proposed.  I  say  the  righteousness,  not 
merely  the  wisdom  ;  for  he  who  is  accustomed  to 
determine  the  righteousness  of  conduct  by  its  re- 
sults will  naturally  employ  this  method  in  deter- 
mining the  righteousness  as  well  as  the  wisdom  of 
any  prospective  course  of  action.  Thus  while  this 
method  is  always  the  one  pursued  by  the  man  of 
expediency  it  is  not  only  pursued  by  him  ;  it  is  also 
the  method  of  the  utilitarian.  Such  men  serve  a 
useful  purpose  ;  the  immediate  results  of  proposed 
action  ought  always  to  be  taken  into  account,  and 
such  counselors  compel  us  to  take  account  of  im- 
mediate results ;  they  require  the  community  to 
count  the  cost,  which  it  always  ought  to  do.  But 
they  are  never  far-sighted,  for  it  is  never  possible 
for  even  the  most  sagacious  mortal  to  foresee  more 


332      LIFE  AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE  HEBREWS 

than  the  immediate  outcome  of  any  path  o£  life,  and 
this  never  with  certainty.  The  other  course  of 
reaching  a  conclusion  in  such  a  time  of  doubt  starts 
from  a  different  premise  and  employs  a  different 
process.  He  who  adopts  it  assumes  as  his  premise 
that  there  are  certain  great  principles,  both  of 
practical  wisdom  and  of  practical  righteousness. 
On  the  irresistible  force  and  immutable  action  of 
these  principles  he  bases  his  judgment.  The  only 
problem  is  how  to  apply  the  principle,  the  truth  of 
which  he  assumes,  to  the  circumstances  before  him. 
If  he  is  mistaken  in  his  judgment  of  the  principle 
the  mistake  is  fatal ;  nothing  can  prevent  inevitable 
disaster  from  following  the  course  of  action  he 
advises.  But  if  he  is  correct  in  his  apprehension 
of  the  principle,  his  errors  in  application  can  be 
corrected  from  time  to  time  as  these  errors  are 
made  manifest.  When  Thomas  Jefferson,  long 
before  he  or  any  man  could  have  anticipated  the 
Civil  War,  said  in  view  of  slavery,  "  I  tremble  for 
my  country  when  I  reflect  that  God  is  just," 
Thomas  Jefferson  was  a  true  prophet,  not  because 
a  miraculous  vision  of  future  events  was  given  to 
him,  but  because  the  sense  of  divine  justice  and  the 
consciousness  of  human  iniquity  made  him  feel  sure 
that  unless  the  nation  rid  itself  of  its  iniquity  it 
would  suffer  the  penalty  threatened  by  divine  jus- 
tice. He  who  is  endowed  with  a  keen  sensitiveness 
to  moral  principles,  with  intellectual  capacity  to 
apply  those  principles  to  national  life,  and  with 
the  insight  which  enables  him  to  understand  the 


PREACHERS   OF  RIGHTEOUSNESS  333 

inward  and  real  life  of  the  nation,  will  be  equipped 
with  the  foresight  which  will  enable  him  to  see  — 
not  in  detail,  but  in  a  large  way  —  what  will  be  the 
future  of  the  nation. 

Thus  the  Hebrew  prophets,  because  they  per- 
ceived that  God  was  just,  because  they  perceived 
the  divine  principles  which  rule  in  the  world 
though  the  world  understands  them  not,  because 
they  understood  the  relation  of  the  national  events 
in  the  midst  of  which  they  lived  to  the  divine  law 
and  the  divine  Lawgiver,  were  able  to  forecast  the 
future.  They  did  this,  not  generally,  if  ever,  by 
listening  to  some  message  whispered  into  their  ears, 
as,  according  to  the  Mohammedan  legend,  the  dove 
whispered  the  message  into  the  ears  of  ]\Iohammed, 
but  by  their  knowledge  that  national  well-being 
follows  national  righteousness  and  national  death 
follows  national  iniquity,  and  by  their  further  per- 
ception that,  in  a  few  faithful  men  willing  to  suffer 
for  truth  and  righteousness  in  an  epoch  seemingly 
given  over  to  the  corruption  of  covetousness,  there 
is  a  salt  which  will  save  the  corrupt  nation,  a  light 
which  will  lead  it  through  its  gloom  to  the  day  of 
the  Lord.  Because  the  prophet's  predictions  seemed 
marvelous  to  those  who  do  not  understand  the  inex- 
orable operation  of  divine  principles  in  national 
history,  attention  has  been  diverted  from  those 
principles  which  formed  the  real  subject  matter  of 
the  prophet's  message  to  those  apparently  more 
marvelous  predictions  which  were  incidental  to  it. 
Hence,  too  often  the  students  of  prophecy  have 


334      LIFE  AND   LITERATURE    OF  THE  HEBREWS 

read  the  books  of  the  Hebrew  prophets,  not  to  see 
what  great  fundamental  principles  they  inculcate, 
what  are  the  laws  of  national  life  which  they  make 
clear,  and  which  may  be  justly  applied  in  our  time 
and  to  our  nation,  but  to  see  how  strangely  their 
predictions  correspond  with  events  long  posterior 
to  them. 

This  habit  of  dwelling  on  the  marvelous  has 
been  strengthened  by  the  rabbinical  habit  of  read- 
ing into  the  Old  Testament  books  what  was  not  in 
the  mind  of  their  original  writers.  This  rabbinical 
habit  affected  to  some  extent  the  writers  of  the 
New  Testament  books  themselves.  Thus,  for  ex- 
ample, Hosea,  pleading  with  Israel,  and  setting 
before  it  the  mei'cy  and  love  of  God,  illustrated  by 
the  historical  fact  that  God  loved  Israel  when  it 
was  weak,  feeble,  good-for-naught,  says,  "When 
Israel  was  a  child,  then  I  loved  him,  and  called  my 
son  out  of  Egypt."  ^  It  is  as  if  the  prophet  said, 
speaking  in  the  name  of  Jehovah,  I  knew  you  while 
you  were  stiU  in  bondage,  and  I  chose  you  as  the 
nation  to  bear  the  message  of  religious  truth  that 
God  is  and  that  he  is  a  just  God  ;  for  this  purpose 
I  chose,  not  the  Phoenician  race,  mother  of  litera- 
ture, not  the  Egyj)tian  race,  at  once  cradle  and 
grave  of  civilization,  not  the  Babylonian  or  Chal- 
dean or  Persian  race  with  its  wealth  of  territory 
and  its  concentration  of  power  —  I  called  you  out 
of  your  bondage,  a  set  of  weak,  willful,  worthless 
slaves.     When,  centuries  after  Hosea  has  uttered 

^  Hosea  xi.  1. 


PREACHERS   OF  RIGHTEOUSNESS  335 

these  words,  the  boy  Jesus  is  taken  down  into 
Egypt  by  Joseph  and  Mary,  and  brought  back 
again,  Matthew  seizes  this  phrase,  "  Out  of  Egypt 
I  called  my  son,"  and  applies  it  to  the  return  of 
Jesus  from  Egypt  to  Galilee.^  It  is  a  rabbinical 
use  of  a  prophetic  writing.  It  is  quite  clear  from 
the  reading  of  the  Book  of  Hosea  itself  that 
Hosea's  reference  was  historical  purely,  that  it 
referred  to  the  past,  not  to  the  future. 

A  still  more  striking  illustration  is  afforded  by 
one  of  the  prophecies  of  Isaiah.  Ahaz  was  a  weak 
king,  wicked  in  his  weakness,  and  the  nation  was 
sinking  under  the  weight  of  corruption  which  he 
had  not  the  resolution  to  resist.  Isaiah  protests  in 
vain  against  the  policy  of  Ahaz,  which  is  bringing 
ruin  upon  the  nation.  "  Ask,"  says  Isaiah,  "  any 
sign  you  please,  and  it  shall  be  granted  to  you  as  a 
witness  that  I  am  speaking  for  Jehovah."  Ahaz, 
self-willed  and  determined  to  pursue  his  own  course, 
replies,  "  I  will  ask  no  sign,"  and,  piously  veiling 
his  self-will,  adds,  "  Neither  will  I  tempt  Jehovah." 
Then  to  him  Isaiah  replies  with  indignation, 
"  Therefore  the  Lord  himself  will  give  you  a 
sign :  behold  a  young  woman  will  conceive  and 
bear  a  son,  and  will  call  his  name  God-with-us ; 
because  before  the  boy  knows  how  to  refuse  the 
evil  and  choose  the  good,  the  land  of  whose  two 
kings  thou  art  sore  afraid  will  be  unpeopled,  and 
the  Lord  shall  bring  upon  thee,  and  thy  father's 
house,  days  that  have  not  come  from  the  day  that 
1  Matt.  ii.  15. 


336      LIFE  AND   LITERATURE   OF   THE  HEBREWS 

Ephraira  departed  from  Judali  [that  is,  since  the 
division  of  the  kingdom]  ;  even  the  king  of  As- 
syria." ^  Here,  again,  the  primary  meaning  of  the 
prophet  is  plain  :  on  the  one  hand,  the  kings  of 
Syria  and  Israel  shall  be  defeated  and  their  lands 
overrun  and  desolated ;  on  the  other,  Ahaz  shall 
see  the  result  of  his  policy  in  the  desolation  which 
it  will  bring  to  his  land.  Seven  centuries  later 
Jesus  is  born,  the  promised  Messiah,  the  true  Ira- 
manuel  for  whom  Israel  had  long  been  looking, 
the  God-with-us  who  was  to  bring  salvation  to  the 
race.  So  Matthew  believed ;  and  he  seized  these 
words  of  an  ancient  prophet  and  applied  them  to 
the  event  of  his  own  time.^  In  fact,  Jesus  is  not 
called  Immanuel,  either  by  the  angel  who  foretold 
his  birth,  by  his  mother,  by  the  people  among  whom 
he  lived,  or  by  subsequent  history ;  nearly  or  quite 
seven  centuries  elapsed  between  the  desolations  of 
war  which  Isaiah  had  foretold  and  the  birth  of 
Jesus ;  nor  is  there  any  adequate  reason  to  think 
that  Isaiah  had,  when  he  wrote,  any  anticipation  of 
the  birth  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  to  occur  so  many 
hundred  years  after  his  prophecy. 

Let  the  reader,  then,  of  this  volume  understand, 
whether  he  agrees  with  it  or  not,  the  writer's  point 
of  view.  This  is  that,  though  a  prophet  does  some- 
times predict,  and  though  his  prediction  is  some- 

1  Isa.  vii.  10-17.  Polychrome  translation.  See,  also,  The  Book 
of  Isaiah,  vol.  i.  pp.  103-118,  by  George  Adam  Smith,  who  thinks 
there  is  in  this  passage  an  indirect  reference  to  the  Messiah. 

2  Matt.  i.  22,  23. 


PREACHERS   OF  RIGHTEOUSNESS  337 

times  wonderfully  fulfilled,  his  prediction  and  its 
fulfillment  constitute  neither  the  measure  nor  the 
value  of  his  prophecy.  The  prophet  speaks  to  fear, 
warning  men  of  danger ;  he  speaks  to  hope,  insjjir- 
ing  them  to  life  ;  but  he  does  not  to  any  great 
extent  give  detailed  information  respecting  events 
to  come.  This  is  not  his  function ;  for  no  such 
purpose  was  he  sent  into  the  world.  lie  is  not  a 
foreteller,  but  a  forth-teller.  He  speaks  not  of  the 
future,  but  for  another  ;  and  that  other,  God. 
"Just  as  a  dumb  or  retired  person,"  says  Ewald, 
"  must  have  a  speaker  to  speak  for  him  and  declare 
his  thought,  so  must  God,  who  is  dumb  in  respect  to 
the  mass  of  men,  have  his  messenger  or  speaker ; 
and  hence  the  word  '  prophet,'  in  its  sacred  sense, 
denotes  him  who  speaks,  not  of  himself,  but  is  com- 
missioned by  God."  1  In  this  sense  prophets  have 
lived  from  the  time  of  Moses  to  the  present  time. 
Every  true  Christian  teacher  ought  to  be  in  some 
sense  a  prophet,  not  forecasting  future  events,  not 
foretelling  what  is  to  occur,  but  communing  with 
his  God,  and  getting  direct  from  the  Father  the 
message  which  he  presents  to  those  who  listen  to 
him,  because  he  is  the  interpreter  of  another ;  and 
that  other,  God. 

The  prophets  of  the  Old  Testament,  then,  were 
first  of  all  men  of  God.  Not  men  who  had  reached 
the  conclusion,  by  philosophical  investigation,  that 
there  is  a  God,  but  men  who  had  talked  with  him, 
walked  with  him,  lived  with  him,  and  received  their 
1  Prophets  of  the  Old  Testament,  vol.  i.  p.  8. 


338      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   TUE  HEBREWS 

message  from  him.  This  at  least  was  their  faith, 
and  in  this  faith  they  spoke.  Because  of  this  faith 
they  were  accustomed  to  say,  "  Thus  saith  the 
Lord."  "  Hear  the  word  of  the  Lord,  ye  rulers 
of  Sodom,"  cries  Isaiah.^  "  The  Lord  God  hath 
spoken,  who  can  but  prophesy  ?  "  says  Amos.^  The 
extent  to  which  this  consciousness  of  the  divine 
presence  underlies  the  speech  of  the  Hebrew  pro- 
phets is  indicated  by  the  fact  that  the  single  phrase 
"  Thus  saith  the  Lord  "  occurs  more  than  two  hun- 
dred times  in  the  Old  Testament.  Several  of  them 
give  definite  accounts  of  the  commission  which  they 
received  from  God  to  be  the  bearer  of  his  message. 
They  generally  were  reluctant  to  accept  it,  felt  their 
inability  to  fulfill  it,  begged  to  be  excused.  To 
Isaiah  Jehovah  appears  in  the  Temple  in  a  vision, 
and  a  seraph  with  a  live  coal  from  the  altar  touches 
his  lips  and  takes  away  the  uncleanness  which  un- 
fits him  to  be  Jehovah's  messenger ;  to  Jeremiah  in 
his  youth  Jehovah  appears,  overrules  his  objection 
that  he  is  but  a  child,  and  touches  his  mouth  as  a 
sign  that  his  words  shall  not  be  his  own,  but  Jeho- 
vah's ;  to  Ezekiel  Jehovah  appears  upon  the  plains 
of  Chaldea  by  the  river  Chebar,  and  when  the  pro- 
phet falls  upon  his  face  in  fear,  bids  him  stand 
upon  his  feet  and  be  not  afraid  to  speak  the  words 
that  are  given  to  him,  whether  Israel  will  hear 
or  whether  they  will  forbear  ;  Zechariah  receives 
by  night  from  the  angel  of  Jehovah  the  strange 
symbolic  visions  which  constitute  the  theme  of  his 

1  Isa.  i.  10.  ^  Amos  iii.  8. 


PREACHERS    OF  RIGHTEOUSNESS  339 

mystical  prophecies.  This  is  the  first  and  most  dis- 
tinguishing characteristic  of  these  prophets;  they 
believe  themselves  peculiarly  commissioned  by  Jeho- 
vah to  speak  in  his  name.^ 

And  yet  we  are  not  to  forget  that  this  message 
v^rhich  came  forth  from  God  came  into,  not  merely 
unto,  the  prophet.  It  became  a  part  of  his  nature, 
and  came  forth  from  him  mixed  with  his  own 
thoughts.  These  prophets  were  no  machines,  no 
amanuenses  writing  at  dictation.  They  were  men 
inspired  with  God's  spirit,  conscious  of  God's 
presence,  possessing  some  thought  or  feeling  or 
passion  which  they  believed  was  God-given,  and 
bringing  their  message  to  their  people  in  their  own 
language,  and  colored  by  their  own  personality. 
The  differences  in  the  form  and  even  the  spirit  of 
their  utterances  is  quite  as  great  as  is  to  be  found 
in  the  utterances  of  any  other  class  of  writers. 
The  sternness  of  a  Carlyle  is  in  Amos  ;  the  gentle- 
ness of  a  Whittier  is  in  Hosea;  the  popular  en- 
thusiasm of  a  Wyckliffe  is  in  Micah  ;  the  states- 
manlike quality  of  a  Cranmer  is  in  Isaiah  ;  the 
pathos  of  a  Tennyson  in  his  most  pathetic  moods 
is  in  Jeremiah ;  the  radiant  hopefulness  of  a 
Browning  in  his  most  optimistic  moods  is  in  the 
Great  Unknown.  God  speaks  in  these  prophets, 
but  if  we  would  understand  their  message  we  must 
understand  the  men. 

And  we  must  understand  the  age  in  which  they 
lived,  and  the  conditions  under  which  they  wrote, 
1  Isa.  vi. ;  Jer.  i.  4-10 ;  Ezek.  i.  ii. ;  Zech.  i.  1-4,  7  ff. 


340      LIFE   AND    LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

for  they  are  preeminently  men  of  their  age.  Con- 
cerning the  events  of  their  age  they  speak ;  to  the 
men  moved  by  those  events  they  bring  their  mes- 
sages; by  those  events  they  are  themselves  edu- 
cated. It  is,  therefore,  necessary  to  study  them  in 
connection  with  the  events  in  the  midst  of  which 
they  live,  and  concerning  which  they  speak. 
Without  some  knowledge  of  their  times,  their  ut- 
terances are  liable  to  be  misunderstood,  and  not 
infrequently  are  almost  unintelligible.  As  it  would 
be  impossible  clearly  to  comprehend  Jeremy  Tay- 
lor's "  Liberty  of  Prophesying  "  without  any  know- 
ledge of  the  life  of  England  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  Dr.  Eliphalet  Nott's  famous  sermon 
against  dueling  without  knowing  the  story  of  Ham- 
ilton and  Burr,  the  anti-slaveiy  poems  of  John 
Greenleaf  Whittier  and  the  anti-slavery  addresses 
of  Theodore  Parker  and  Henry  Ward  Beecher 
without  knowing  that  slavery  existed  in  republi- 
can America,  so  it  is  impossible  to  understand  the 
scathing  denunciations  of  Amos,  the  tender  plead- 
ings of  Hosea,  the  manly  and  virile  pathos  of  Jere- 
miah, the  hopeful  visions  of  the  Great  Unknown, 
the  Puritanism  of  Malachi,  and  the  ecclesiasticism 
of  Zechariah,  without  knowing  the  history  of  Israel 
from  the  days  of  Jehoshaphat  to  those  of  the  Re- 
storation after  the  exile. 

Something  more,  however,  than  an  understand- 
ing of  great  religious  principles  and  the  great 
national  events  to  which  the  prophets  apply  them 
is  necessary  to  a  comprehension  of  the  prophetic 


PREACUERS    OF  RIGUTEOUHXESS  oil 

teaching.  Spiritual  sympathy  with  them  in  their 
struggle  against  the  vicious  tendencies  of  their 
times  is  necessary  to  a  comprehension  of  their 
spirit,  and,  except  as  their  spirit  is  comprehended, 
their  teaching  cannot  be  comprehended.  Each  of 
them  might  have  said  to  their  auditors,  as  Paul  to 
the  throng  at  Lystra,  "  We  also  are  men  of  like 
passions  with  you."  They  were  men,  and  into 
their  human  life  the  reader  must  enter,  sharing  it 
with  them.  Patriots  were  they,  loving  their  coun- 
try with  devotion  ;  but  they  loved  righteousness 
even  more,  and  when  they  saw  their  country  grow- 
ing corrupt,  they  denounced  the  corruptionist, 
however  high  in  station,  with  the  fiery  indignation 
of  men  who,  because  they  love  Jehovah,  hate  that 
which  is  evil.  They  shared  the  fears  and  hopes 
of  the  men  of  their  time,  and  yet  had  an  experi- 
ence both  of  fear  and  of  hope  which  transcended 
that  of  the  commonplace  auditors  to  whom  they 
addressed  their  warnings  and  their  encourage- 
ments. Men  of  great  courage  of  conviction  were 
they  —  none  braver  in  human  history  than  these 
ancient  Hebrew  prophets  :  Elijah  denouncing  King 
Ahab,  and  challenging  him  to  conflict  before  the 
people ;  Nathan  going  to  King  David  with  his 
parable  and  saying  to  his  face,  "  Thou  art  the 
man  ;  "  Amos  breaking  in  upon  the  high  festivi- 
ties of  the  people  with  his  message  of  stinging  re- 
buke ;  Micah  denouncing  the  rich  for  their  oppres- 
sions of  the  poor.  Great  men  were  they  —  among 
the   greatest   of   the  world's   leaders ;    sometimes 


342      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

statesmen,  yet  never  politicians  ;  sometimes  poets, 
yet  never  sentimentalists ;  great  thinkers,  but 
never  mere  scholastic  philosophers  ;  reformers,  yet 
not  impracticables  ;  historians,  but  neither  parti- 
sans nor  opportunists. 

We  can  better  understand  the  characteristics 
which  these  prophets  had  in  common,  if  we  con- 
trast them  with  the  other  three  great  types  of  re- 
ligious teachers  among  the  Hebrews,  —  the  law- 
givers, the  wise  men,  and  the  poets. 

There  are  three  great  lawgivers  whose  legislation 
remains  in  the  religious  literature  of  the  Hebrews, 
—  Moses,  Nehemiah,  and  Ezra  ;  perhaps  to  these 
should  be  added  the  unknown  authors  of  the  Deu- 
teronomic  and  Levitical  codes,  although  they  were 
rather  codifiers  of  existing  laws  than  lawgivers; 
and  this  may  also  probably  be  said  of  Ezekiel,  who 
like  Moses  was  both  prophet  and  lawgiver.  The 
message  of  the  prophets  is  generically  and  in 
spirit  identical  with  that  contained  in  the  Book  of 
the  Covenant,  and  in  the  common  law  which  grew 
out  of  the  Book  of  the  Covenant  and  finally  was 
codified  in  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy.  So  identi- 
cal are  they  therewith  that  some  scholars  have  re- 
garded the  prophets  rather  than  Moses  as  the 
author  of  Mosaism,  and  Moses  himself  as  a  vague 
and  possibly  even  unhistorical  character,  to  whom 
the  law  was  attributed  in  order  to  give  it  author- 
ity. It  appears  to  me,  however,  that  even  the 
casual  reader  can  discover  an  important  difference 
between  the  laws  of  Moses  as  they  are  contained 


PREACHERS    OF  RIGHTEOUSNESS  343 

in  the  Pentateuch,  including  both  the  Levitical  and 
the  Deuteronoraic  codes,  and  the  utterances  of  the 
prophets.  The  former  were  statutory  in  their 
tone.  They  appear  to  initiate  law,  to  create  obli- 
gations. Their  spirit  is  fairly  indicated  in  the 
words  with  which  the  farewell  speech  of  Moses  in 
the  Book  of  Deuteronomy  draws  to  its  close  :  "See, 
I  have  set  before  thee  this  day  life  and  good,  and 
death  and  evil ;  in  that  I  command  thee  tlds  day^ 
to  love  Jehovah  thy  God,  to  walk  in  his  ways, 
and  to  keep  his  commandments  and  his  statutes 
and  his  judgments."  ^  This  is  rarely  the  language 
of  the  prophets.  They  assume  the  law  as  some- 
thing known,  recognized,  familiar  to  the  people. 
They  take  it  as  a  standard  already  established,  as 
part  of  a  covenant  already  entered  into  ;  and  with 
it  they  measure  the  life  of  the  nation ;  by  it  they 
condemn  the  nation  ;  and,  condemning,  they  call 
on  the  nation  to  repent  and  return  to  its  loyalty 
and  obedience.  Their  language  therefore  is  that 
of  Isaiah,  who  refers  his  hearers  "  to  the  law  and 
to  the  testimony  "  as  something  well  known  ;  that 
of  Jeremiah,  who  answers  the  self-excusing  Jews, 
"  ye  have  not  obeyed  the  voice  of  Jehovah,  nor 
walked  in  his  laws,  nor  in  his  statutes,  nor  in  his 
testimonies  ; "  that  of  Hosea,  who  represents  Je- 
hovah as  saying  to  the  people,  "  seeing  thou  hast 
forgotten  the  law  of  thy  God  I  will  also  forget  thy 
children  ; "  that  of  Amos,  who  foretells  the  im- 
pending doom  of  Judah  because  "  they  have  re- 
1  Deut.  XXX.  15, 16. 


344      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

jectecl  the  law  of  Jehovah  and  have  not  kept  his 
statutes."  ^  Thei'efore  is  it  that  their  message  is  a 
summons  not  to  begin  a  life  never  before  known, 
to  enter  into  a  covenant  never  before  proposed  to 
them,  but  to  return  to  the  life  which  they  have  aban- 
doned, and  to  renew  the  covenant  which  they  have 
broken.  Moses  is  represented  as  proposing  a  new 
covenant  to  Israel :  "  If  ye  will  obey  my  voice  and 
keep  my  covenant  then  ye  shall  be  a  peculiar  trea- 
sure unto  me  above  all  people  ;  "  ^  even  Joshua  is 
represented  as  calling  on  them  to  confirm  this  cove- 
nant almost  as  though  it  were  now  made  for  the 
first  time.^  But  the  summons  of  the  prophets  is 
very  different ;  it  is  a  summons  to  Israel  to  remem- 
ber the  forgotten  law,  to  repent  of  their  violation 
of  it,  and  to  return  to  Jehovah  who  has  been  aban- 
doned and  to  their  covenant  with  him  which  has 
been  disregarded.*  Throughout,  the  prophets  as- 
sume that  the  people  have  long  possessed  a  divine 
law,  that  their  life  is  a  flagrant  violation  of  that 
law,  that  they  must  repent  and  return  to  Jehovah 
and  renew  their  allegiance  to  his  law.  This  is  not 
the  language  of  the  lawgiver.  It  would  be  as  in- 
appropriate in  the  Book  of  the  Covenant  or  even 
in  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy  as  would  be  the  Ten 
Commandments  in  the  Books  of  Isaiah,  Amos,  or 
Hosea. 

1  Isa.  viii.  20 ;  Jer.  xliv.  23  ;  Hosea  iv.  6  ;  Amos  ii.  4. 
^  Excel,  xix.  5. 
^  Josh.  xxiv.  15-21. 

*  Isa.  xliv.  22 ;  Jer.  iii.  22  ;  iv.  1 ;  xviii.  11 ;  Ezek.  xviii.  23; 
Mai.  iii.  7. 


PREACHERS   OF  RIGHTEOUSNESS  345 

The  difference  between  the  prophets  and  the 
wise  men  is  equally  marked.  We  have  seen  that 
the  characteristic  of  the  wise  men,  as  iUustrated  by 
the  books  of  Proverbs  and  of  Ecclesiastes,  is  that 
they  inculcate  ethical  maxims  based  sometimes 
upon  conscience,  but  more  generally  upon  pruden- 
tial considerations.  There  are  few  or  no  maxims 
in  the  prophets.  They  rarely  even  quote  a  pro- 
verb, still  more  rarely  employ  the  proverbial 
method.  Their  appeal  is  not  to  experience  ;  their 
theme  is  not  the  duty  of  man  to  man.  It  is  true 
that  they  have  much  to  say  of  the  sin  of  inhuman- 
ity, much  of  the  duty  of  considering  the  poor  and 
the  oppressed  ;  but  the  sin  is  almost  invariably 
treated  as  a  sin  against  Jehovah,  the  punishment 
as  inflicted  by  Jehovah.  To  oppress  the  poor,  keep 
the  debtor's  pledge  of  clothing  overnight  in  viola- 
tion of  the  law,  live  in  sensuality  and  intemper- 
ance, is  to  transgress  the  law  of  Jehovah ;  to  seek 
judgment,  relieve  the  oppressed,  judge  the  father- 
less, plead  for  the  widow,  is  to  return  to  Jehovah 
and  be  cleansed  by  him.^  The  teachings  of  the 
prophets  are  ethical,  but  the  sanctions  of  those 
teachings  are  divine  ;  sin  is  more  than  folly,  more 
than  violation  of  law ;  more  than  wrong  inflicted 
upon  a  neighbor ;  it  is  disloyalty  to  God  —  who  is 
the  king,  the  father,  the  husband,  of  his  people, 
disobedience  to  whom  is  treachery  in  the  citizen,  un- 
filial  conduct  in  the  son,  unfaithfulness  in  the  wife. 

1  Amos  ii.  6-8  ;  Micah  ii.  1,  2 ;  iii.  9-12  ;  Isa.  iii.  15  ;  v.  8-20 ; 
i.  16-18. 


346     LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

The  difference  between  the  prophets  and  the 
poets  is  jjerhaps  not  so  striking ;  for  the  poet  is 
also  a  prophet  and  the  prophet  is  also  a  poet. 
There  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  prophets  some- 
times sang  their  utterances  in  a  monotonous  chant ; 
some  of  them  are  poetic  in  form,  more  of  them  in 
spirit.^  Yet  there  is  a  real  difference  between  the 
poets  —  whether  lyric,  epic,  or  dramatic  —  and  the 
prophets,  in  that  the  former  describe  experiences 
either  their  own  or  dramatically  that  of  others,  and 
leave  the  experience  to  convey  its  own  lesson,  while 
the  prophets  are  distinctly  and  directly  didactic. 
The  poets  are  interpreters  of  life,  generally  of  re- 
ligious life  ;  the  prophets  are  teachers  of  truth, 
always  of  religious  truth.  The  conscious  object  of 
the  former  is  to  express  themselves,  the  conscious 
object  of  the  latter  to  impress  their  auditors  ;  the 
former  sing,  the  latter  speak  ;  the  former  are  poets 
primarily,  preachers  secondarily ;  the  latter  are 
preachers  primarily,  poets  secondarily.  Speaking 
broadly,  we  shall  not  be  far  wrong  if  we  say  that 
the  poets  are  didactic  poets  and  the  prophets  are 
poetical  teachers  ;  the  poetry  of  the  first  is  imbued 
with  a  religious  purpose,  the  preaching  of  the  sec- 
ond is  imbued  with  a  poetic  spirit. 

That  Jehovah  is  a  righteous  Person,  that  his 
laws  are  righteous  laws,  that  obedience  to  them 
requires  sobriety,  humanity,  and  reverence,  that  no 

*  1  Sam.  X.  5.  For  poetical  forms  see  the  translations  in  the 
Polychrome  Bible,  or  in  The  Book  of  Isaiah  or  The  Book  of  the 
Twelve  Prophets,  by  George  Adam  Smith. 


PREACHERS    OF  RIGHTEOUSNESS  347 

sacred  ceremonial  can  serve  as  a  substitute  for  such 
obedience,  that  man's  inhumanity  to  man  is  a  sin 
against  God  and  that  the  only  genuine  repentance 
is  a  return  to  Jehovah  and  to  a  life  of  righteous- 
ness, is  the  common  teaching  of  all  these  prophets  : 
and  yet  their  messages  are  as  various  as  their  char- 
acters. Amos  is  a  moral  reformer,  appears  sud- 
denly in  the  midst  of  Israel's  greatest  apparent 
prosperity  but  real  corruption  and  hastening  decay, 
to  denounce  the  nation's  profligacy  and  inhuman- 
ity, expose  the  falsity  of  hopes  built  on  a  tradi- 
tional theology  and  a  ceremonial  religion,  and  fore- 
tell coming  disaster  and  doom  ;  Hosea  is  a  poet, 
who  has  learned  the  deepest  truths  of  human  sin- 
fulness and  divine  love  in  the  school  of  his  own 
bitter  experience,  —  the  infidelity  of  his  wife  has 
brought  home  to  him  the  guilt  of  Israel's  disloyalty 
to  Jehovah,  his  own  long-suffering  love  for  his  wife 
has  taught  him  the  strong  love  of  Jehovah,  too 
deep  to  be  destroyed  by  human  sin,  however  dam- 
nable ;  Isaiah  is  a  statesman,  strong  leader  of  the 
people,  wise  counselor  of  kings,  whose  courage 
sustains  the  heart  of  the  people  in  dire  disaster, 
whose  wisdom  might  have  saved  the  kingdom  from 
destruction  had  the  kings  followed  his  counsels  ; 
Micah  is  the  prophet  of  the  poor,  the  religious 
socialist  of  his  age,  who  denounces  the  greed  of  the 
rich  and  the  vices  of  the  capital,  and  for  the  na- 
tion's redemption  looks  not  to  the  court  or  the  city 
but  to  the  countiy  village  and  the  ranks  of  the 
plain  people  ;  Zephaniah,  living  in  the  superficial 


348      LIFE  AND   LITERATURE   OF   THE  HEBREWS 

and  transient  reforms  of  King  Josiah,  perceives 
how  superficial  and  transient  they  are,  and  utters 
the  one  word  of  warning  against  the  hopes  which 
are  built  upon  them  ;  Nahum,  with  a  fine  scorn  of 
imperial  greatness  inspired  by  the  spirit  of  cruelty, 
foretells  the  siege  and  fall  of  Nineveh,  city  of 
blood  and  of  ceaseless  rapine ;  Habakkuk  is  a 
skeptic  with  clinging  faith,  whose  verse  begins 
with  the  skeptic's  cry,  "  O  Lord,  how  long  shall 
I  cry  and  thou  wilt  not  hear,"  and  ends  with  the 
answer  of  faith,  "  Though  the  fig  tree  shall  not 
blossom  neither  shall  fruit  be  in  the  vines,  .  .  . 
yet  I  will  rejoice  in  the  Lord,  I  will  joy  in  the 
God  of  my  salvation ;  "  ^  Obadiah  is  an  outraged 
idealist,  whose  indignation  in  the  hour  of  his  na- 
tion's apparent  ruin  cries  out  against  the  apathy  of 
a  kindred  people  gloating  over  his  brother's  mis- 
fortune ;  Jeremiah  is  the  first  distinctive  individual- 
ist among  the  Hebrew  prophets,  —  a  Huguenot  in 
an  age  ruled  by  the  Medici,  a  Savonarola  in  an  age 
of  Alexander  VI.,  execrating  himself,  at  times  ex- 
ecrating his  age  and  his  people,  at  other  times 
pleading  with  them  for  Jehovah  and  with  Jehovah 
for  them,  with  infinite  pathos,  and  amidst  the  ruins 
of  the  old  covenant  destroyed  by  Israel's  sin  and 
Jehovah's  consequent  repudiation  of  it,  prophesying 
a  new  covenant  with  the  elect  individuals  saved 
from  the  nation's  wreck,  —  strange,  sad,  self-con- 
tradictory, eloquent,  pathetic,  despairing,  brave,  a 
Protestant  before  Protestantism,  a  Puritan  before 
1  Nah.  iii.  1 ;  Hab.  i.  2 ;  iii.  17,  18. 


PREACHERS   OF  RIGHTEOUSNESS  349 

Puritanism ;  Ezekiel  is  the  prophet  of  the  Exile, 
endeavoring  to  preserve  the  faith  of  his  people  by 
solidifying  their  religious  institutions  and  codifying 
their  ecclesiastical  laws,  the  first  of  the  prophets 
to  prophesy  in  writing,  the  literary  prophet,  there- 
fore, churchman  among  prophets,  prophet  among 
churchmen,  unlike  most  churchmen  of  later  history, 
emphasizing  the  universal  Presence  where  there  is 
neither  Temple  nor  ritual,  and  the  divine  Imma- 
nence as  the  secret  of  all  life  and  the  hope  of  all  the 
future ;  the  Great  Unknown  is  the  most  catholic  of 
all  the  prophets,  —  recognizes  even  in  the  pagan 
Emperor  Cyrus  the  Great  a  messenger  and  ser- 
vant of  Jehovah,  foresees  the  coming  of  pagan 
peoples  to  share  Israel's  future  glory,  is  the  first  of 
Hebrew  teachers  to  see  that  suffering  is  not  a  sign 
of  divine  displeasure  but  a  commission  to  divine 
service,  first  to  see  that  the  suffering  for  sin  is  to 
be  cured  by  sinless  suffering,  first  to  foresee  a  Suf- 
fering Servant  of  Jehovah  yet  to  come,  out  of  the 
travail  of  whose  soul  a  new  Israel  will  be  born,  —  of 
all  the  Hebrew  prophets  the  one  with  the  widest 
horizon  and  the  deepest  insight;  Haggai,  Zecha- 
riah,  and  Malachi  are  prophets  of  the  restoration  : 
Haggai,  a  churchman  who  urges  on  the  rebuilding 
of  the  Temple ;  Zechariah,  a  contemporary  of  the 
same  school,  whose  mystic  visions  are  as  untrans- 
latable into  prose  as  those  of  Percivale  in  Tenny- 
son's "  Holy  Grail ;  "  Malachi,  a  Puritan  prophet 
who  protests  against  those  corruptions  of  life  and 
doctrine  which  always  accompany  an  ecclesiastical 


350      LIFE  AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE  HEBREWS 

revival :  men  of  contrary  temperament  these,  but 
belonging  to  the  same  epoch  and  produced  by  the 
same  influences  as  Loyola  and  Luther  by  the  Re- 
naissance, or  Laud  and  Cartwright  by  the  Puritan 
revival ;  Joel  is  a  moral  poet  of  uncertain  date  who 
draws  from  so  simple  an  incident  as  a  devastating 
flight  of  locusts  a  symbol  of  the  judgment  day  of 
Jehovah ;  Jonah  is  a  satire  written  by  an  unknown 
author  on  the  narrowness  of  Israel  and  a  testimony 
to  the  universality  of  Jehovah's  lovingkindnesses 
and  tender  mercies ;  and  Daniel  is  latest  of  all  the 
prophets,  and  his  apocalyptic  visions,  like  those  of 
his  antitype  in  the  New  Testament,  are  still  a  per- 
plexity to  the  spiritual  and  a  peril  to  the  literalist. 
If  we  attempt  to  combine  in  a  single  sentence 
the  message  of  these  prophets  it  will  be  something 
like  this :  we  learn  from  Amos  that  God  is  a  just 
God  who  will  not  spare  the  guilty;  from  Hosea 
that  he  is  a  merciful  God,  tender,  patient,  and  long- 
suffering  ;  from  Micah  that  he  is  the  God  of  the 
poor,  and  will  punish  those  who  wrong  his  poor ; 
from  Isaiah  and  Nahum  that  he  is  the  God  of  na- 
tions, the  real  power  in  all  history  and  behind  all 
powers ;  from  Zephaniah  that  he  cannot  be  de- 
ceived by  pretentious  and  superficial  reforms ; 
from  Habakkuk  that  the  soul  can  trust  in  him 
when  it  cannot  understand  his  ways ;  from  Jere- 
miah that  he  is  the  God  of  individuals  and  that  no 
nation  can  be  righteous  in  his  sight  whose  individ- 
ual members  are  unrighteous  ;  from  Ezekiel  that 
he  is  the  Universal  Presence,  in  the  desert  as  in 


PREACHERS   OF  RIGHTEOUSNESS  351 

the  Temple ;  from  the  Great  Unknown  that  he  is 
the  God  of  all  hope  and  will  redeem  the  world 
from  sin  and  suffering  by  sinless  suffering ;  from 
Jonah  that  he  is  a  God  of  all  peoples,  Jew  and 
Gentile ;  from  the  prophets  of  the  restoration, 
Haggai,  Zechariah,  and  Malachi,  that  the  religion 
of  form  and  the  religion  without  form  are  both  ac- 
ceptable to  God,  if  there  be  the  real  spirit  of  faith 
and  hope  and  love  in  either  the  one  or  the  other ; 
and  last  of  all,  from  Joel  that  God  will  come  to 
judge  the  world  with  righteousness  and  the  people 
with  his  truth. 

But  the  prophets  have  another  function  to  per- 
form than  to  testify  to  the  meaning  of  righteous- 
ness in  God  and  in  man  ;  the  consideration  of  that 
function  must  be  reserved  for  another  chapter. 


CHAPTER  XV 

PREACHERS   OF   REDEIVIPTION 

"  By  religion,"  says  John  Henry  Newman,  "  I 
mean  the  knowledge  of  God,  of  his  will,  and  of  our 
duties  toward  him."  ^  By  religion  the  ancient  He- 
brew included  also  the  acceptance  of  reliance  upon 
God's  promises.  The  relation  of  man  to  God  is 
one  of  dependency ;  but  a  relation  of  dependency 
involves  mutual  obligations,  those  of  the  dependent 
to  his  superior,  those  of  the  superior  to  the  one  who 
is  dependent  upon  him.  It  is  the  distinctive  char- 
acteristic of  the  religious  teachers  of  the  ancient 
Hebrews  that  they  frankly  recognize  this  mutuality 
of  obligation  between  God  and  man,  between  the 
Creator  and  the  creature  ;  between  the  divine  Sov- 
ereign, Father,  Husband,  and  the  human  citizen, 
child,  wife ;  to  speak  more  accurately,  they  repre- 
sent Jehovah  himself  as  recognizing  it.  Jehovah 
is  a  King  :  the  citizens  owe  loyalty  to  the  king,  but 
the  king  also  owes  protection  to  the  citizens ;  Jeho- 
vah is  a  Father :  the  child  owes  obedience  to  the 
father,  but  the  father  also  owes  counsel  and  suste- 
nance to  the  child  ;  Jehovah  is  a  Husband  :  the  wife 
owes  fidelity  to  her  husband,  but  the  husband  also 

1  Grammar  of  Assent,  p.  378. 


PREACHERS    OF  REDEMPTION  353 

owes  love  and  guardianship  to  the  wife.  This 
recognition  of  mutual  obligation  is  implied  in  the 
word  used  to  designate  the  relation  between  God 
and  men,  Covenant  or  Testament,  and  so  identified 
with  the  relation  which  the  literature  seeks  to  de- 
scribe that  it  is  made  the  title  of  the  entire  collec- 
tion. A  covenant  necessarily  implies  mutuality, 
and  this  mutuality  is  directly  affirmed,  and,  what 
is  more  important,  tacitly  assumed  by  Jehovah  in 
all  his  revelations  of  himself  and  in  all  his  dealings 
with  his  people.  Religion,  in  the  thought  of  these 
Hebrew  writers,  consists  not  merely  of  the  obliga- 
tion which  man  owes  to  God,  but  also  and  equally 
of  the  obligation  which  God  has  assumed  toward 
man,  and  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  scarcely 
less  stress  is  laid  in  the  sacred  writings  on  what 
God  will  do  for  man,  than  on  what  man  ought  to 
do  in  fulfillment  of  his  duties  toward  God.  In 
short,  these  writings  are  not  less  promises  of  divine 
counsel,  comfort,  protection,  and  support  than  they 
are  summons  to  human  loyalty  and  obedience.  In 
this  respect,  as  in  some  others,  the  religion  of  the 
ancient  Hebrews  is  unique.  The  gods  of  the 
Greeks  and  Romans  are  represented  as  sometimes 
rendering  special  favors  to  special  favorites,  but  I 
do  not  think  any  pagan  religion  represents  the 
deity  as  entering  into  a  covenant  with  the  human 
race  or  even  with  a  special  people,  and  binding 
himself  by  pledges  to  them,  so  that  the  history  of 
their  national  life  consists  of  the  history  of  his  ful- 
fillment of  this  covenant  and  their  fulfillment  of 


354      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

it,  or  failure  to  fulfill.  But  this  is  in  the  Hebrew- 
history  and  the  Hebrew  literature  the  distinctive 
characteristic  of  Jehovah :  he  is  a  covenant-making 
and  a  covenant-keeping  God. 

This  mutuality  of  obligation  between  Jehovah 
and  Israel  is  accompanied  by  explicit  promises  and 
pledges  on  his  part  to  Israel.  And  these  promises 
give  to  Israel's  religion  another  distinctive  pecul- 
iarity. Their  religion  is  forelooking,  it  is  antici- 
patory, it  appeals  to  hope,  it  is  an  incentive  to 
progress.  The  golden  age  of  the  ancient  Hebrews 
was  in  the  future;  that  of  other  ancient  nations  was 
in  the  past.  In  general,  pagan  religion  is  essen- 
tially conservative  if  not  reactionary.  It  recalls  or 
imagines  a  position  of  glory  from  which  the  nation 
has  fallen ;  it  turns  the  thoughts  of  the  people 
toward  the  past ;  it  rehearses  their  sins  and  de- 
mands of  them  some  expiation ;  it  is  so  busy  in 
providing  this  expiation  that  it  has  no  time  or 
thought  to  interpret  present  duties  or  inspire  future 
hopes.  It  is  true  that  the  Hebrew  religion  had  in 
its  legends  the  story  of  a  garden  of  innocence  and 
a  fall.  But  that  story  once  told  was  never  repeated. 
It  is  not  referred  to  again  in  all  the  Hebrew  litera- 
ture. Never  does  poet  or  prophet  recall  to  the 
people  their  Eden  or  call  on  them  to  go  back  to  it. 
It  is  true  that  the  sins  of  Israel  are  clearly  depicted 
and  judicially  condemned,  and  the  people  are  sum- 
moned to  repentance.  But  they  are  told  to  show 
their  repentance  by  a  new  life ;  Daniel's  message 
to  Nebuchadnezzar  summarizes  the  messao-e  of  all 


PREACHERS    OF  REDEMPTION  355 

the  prophets  to  Israel :  "  Break  o£E  thy  sins  by 
righteousness."  The  burden  of  the  pagan  priest 
is  atonement  for  past  sin ;  the  burden  of  the  He- 
brew prophet  is  performance  of  present  duty  and 
pressing  forward  toward  future  ideals.  And  these 
ideals  are  put  before  the  people  as  possible  because 
they  are  the  people  of  Jehovah,  and  Jehovah  is  a 
covenant-keeping  God,  who  recognizes  mutuality 
of  obligation  between  himself  and  his  people,  and 
will  forgive  and  forget  the  past,  and  give  them  wis- 
dom and  strength  for  the  future. 

This  anticipatory  quality,  this  forelooking  based 
on  the  promises  of  a  God  who  is  a  covenant-maker 
and  a  covenant-keeper,  appears  in  the  very  earliest 
legends  of  this  peculiar  people  ;  and  it  distinguishes 
their  earliest  legends  from  the  somewhat  analogous 
ones  of  other  peoples.  It  is  true  that  these  legends 
were  probably  reduced  to  writing  at  a  later  date  in 
Hebrew  history ;  but  it  is  also  true  that  the  writing 
probably  represents  the  earliest  legends,  and  so  the 
earliest  faith.  The  creation  hymn  with  which  the 
Book  of  Genesis  opens  declares  that  God  has  cre- 
ated the  world  for  man,  and  has  given  it  to  him  to 
possess  it,  and  bids  him  have  dominion  over  it  and 
over  all  which  it  contains.  Such  a  command  accom- 
panying such  a  gift  is  itself  a  promise  of  wisdom 
and  power  adequate  to  accomplish  the  so  great 
achievement.  The  legend  of  the  Fall  is  accom- 
panied by  a  promise  at  once  greater  and  more  ex- 
plicit :  the  serpent  which  has  brought  disobedience 
into  the  garden  shall  bite  man's  heel,  that  is,  shall 


356      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

poison  the  whole  human  race,  but  the  seed  of  the 
woman  shall  crush  the  serpent's  head,  that  is,  shall 
at  last  destroy  the  sin  which  has  poisoned  and 
embittered  human  life.  As  the  theme  of  a  sym- 
phony is  indicated  in  the  opening  movement,  so  in 
those  prehistoric  legends  appear  the  double  task 
given  to  man  and  the  promise  of  its  fulfillment : 
he  shall  struggle  with  nature,  but  he  shall  conquer 
her  and  make  her  his  servant ;  he  shall  struggle 
with  moral  evil,  and  it  shall  embitter  his  life, 
but  he  shall  utterly  destroy  it.  With  the  com- 
mission and  the  warning  is  the  promise  of  final 
success. 

This  note  of  promise  is  sounded  throughout 
the  Hebrew  literature  ;  this  attitude  of  expectancy 
characterizes  the  devout  and  faithful  in  Israel  in 
all  stages  of  the  national  history.  In  the  prehis- 
toric legends  the  Flood  is  followed  with  the  bow  set 
in  the  clouds  as  a  sign  of  God's  covenant  with 
Noah  and  with  all  flesh ;  Abraham  the  father  of 
Israel  is  called  out  of  the  land  of  idolatry  by  the 
promise  that  he  shall  be  made  the  father  of  a  great 
nation  in  a  land  which  shall  be  shown  to  him ; 
Moses  is  commissioned  in  the  desert  to  call  Israel 
out  of  bondage  to  a  promised  land  to  be  given  to 
them ;  at  Mount  Sinai  not  the  law  only  is  given, 
but  the  promise  is  also  given  that  if  they  keep 
their  covenant,  God  will  make  of  them  a  kingdom 
of  priests,  a  holy  nation  ;  to  Joshua  Jehovah  re- 
peats the  promise  that  he  will  give  the  land  to 
Israel,  if  their  leader  is  strong  and  courageous  and 


PREACHERS   OF  REDEMPTION  357 

obedient.^  The  land  once  possessed,  the  promises 
take  on  a  new  form.  They  are  now  of  a  king  and 
a  kingdom ;  a  king  to  sit  on  the  throne  of  David, 
to  rule  in  righteousness,  over  a  peaceful  kingdom 
with  extensive  domain,  chastened  if  he  falls  into 
iniquity,  but  not  deserted  by  his  God.^  When 
troubles  gather  about  the  kingdom,  the  promise 
changes  again ;  it  is  no  longer  of  a  land,  —  the 
land  has  been  given  ;  nor  of  a  kingdom,  —  the 
kingdom  has  been  organized  ;  it  is  of  deliverance. 
The  nation  is  in  darkness,  but  it  shall  see  a  great 
light ;  the  rod  of  the  oppressor  shall  be  broken  ; 
the  armor  of  the  armed  man  and  the  garments 
rolled  in  blood  shall  be  fuel  for  the  fire  ;  a  Prince 
shall  be  born  who  shall  be  called  Wonderful,  Coun- 
sellor, Mighty  God,  Everlasting  Father,  Prince 
of  Peace;  of  the  increase  of  his  government  and  of 
peace  there  shall  be  no  end.^  The  promises  of 
Jehovah  are  all  conditional ;  they  are  parts  of  a 
mutual  covenant.  The  conditions  are  not  fulfilled 
by  Israel,  and  therefore  the  rod  of  the  oppressor  is 
not  broken  ;  Jerusalem  is  destroyed  and  Judah  is 
carried  into  captivity ;  but  the  promise  still  abides, 
though  its  form  changes.  It  is  now  a  promise  of 
restoration  ;  a  remnant  shall  be  saved,  and  of  this 
remnant  a  new  Israel  shall  be  created  and  a  new 
covenant  made  with  them,  and  they  shall  no  longer 

1  Gen.   i.   28,  29 ;  iii.  15 ;  ix.  8-17 ;  xii.  1-3  ;  xiii.  14-17 ;  xii. 
1-7  ;  Ex.  iii.  7,  8  ;  xix.  5,  6 ;  Jos.  i.  1-9. 

2  2  Sam.  vii.  11-16;  Ps.  Ixxii. 
8  Isa.  vu.  10-17 ;  ix.  2-7. 


358      LIFE   AND    LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

need  priest  to  minister  to  them  nor  prophet  to  teach 
them,  for  "  they  shall  all  know  me  from  the  least 
unto  the  greatest."  ^  Thus  throughout  this  history 
of  the  promises  of  Jehovah  and  the  expectancy  of 
Israel  there  is  a  common  theme  :  it  is  the  establish- 
ment, or  the  deliverance,  or  the  recovery  and  resto- 
ration, of  the  kingdom  of  Jehovah ;  and  is  generally 
accompanied  by,  centred  around,  and  founded  upon 
a  representative  of  Jehovah  yet  to  appear.  But 
there  are  also  great  differences  in  the  promises  and 
the  anticipations.  The  promise  is  sometimes  of 
the  establishment  of  a  kingdom  not  yet  existing, 
sometimes  the  deliverance  of  a  kingdom  environed 
by  foes,  sometimes  the  restoration  of  a  kingdom 
apparently  utterly  destroyed.  Sometimes  the  cen- 
tral figure  is  a  priest,  sometimes  a  prophet,  some- 
times a  king,  sometimes  a  Suffering  Servant  of 
Jehovah  ;  ^  sometimes  the  kingdom  is  one  of  terres- 
trial glory,  in  which  the  implements  of  war  will 
become  implements  of  peaceful  agriculture  and 
even  the  wild  beasts  will  be  domesticated  and  the 
poisonous  creatures  will  lose  their  venom ;  some- 
times it  is  purely  spiritual,  a  kingdom  without  ark, 
or  temple,  or  ritual ;  sometimes  it  involves  the 
building  of  a  new  temple,  the  reorganization  of  the 
priesthood  and  the  rehabilitation  of  the  sacrifices  ;  ^ 
sometimes  Israel  is  represented  as  conquering  the 
pagan  nations  which  are  destroyed,  sometimes  the 

1  Jer.  xxxi.  1-9,  31-34. 

2  Deut.  xviii.  15-19  ;  Num.  xxv.  12,  13  ;  Isa.  liii. 

8  Isa.  ii.  2-4  ;  xi.  6-9  ;  Jer.  ui.  16  ;  Ezek.  xi.  17-20 .  xl.-xlviii. 


PREACHERS    OF  REDEMPTION  359 

pagan  nations  enter  into  Jerusalem  and  share 
Israel's  glory  with  her ;  sometimes  the  promise  is 
in  form  one  to  be  fulfilled  in  that  generation, 
sometimes  it  has  in  it  a  suggestion  of  a  far-away 
look  down  the  ages,  the  hope  in  the  midst  of  im- 
penetrable darkness  of  a  distant  dawn.^ 

It  does  not  come  within  the  province  of  this  vol- 
ume to  trace  out  these  promises  of  the  prophets 
and  hopes  of  Israel  in  detail.  All  I  attempted  to 
do  in  treating  of  the  law  of  Israel,  whether  civil 
or  ecclesiastical,  was  to  indicate  its  general  charac- 
ter ;  this  is  all  I  can  do  in  treating  of  Israel's 
hopes.2  But  I  may  indicate  the  nature  of  this 
aspect  of  Hebrew  religious  teaching  by  the  two 
examples  furnished  by  the  ministry  of  the  two 
greatest  of  the  prophets  of  redemption,  —  Hosea 
and  the  Great  Unknown. 

Hosea  lived  in  the  closing  years  of  Israel's 
national  existence,  when  the  universal  corruption 
was  beginning  to  bring  forth  its  inevitable  results 

1  Compare  Obadiah  with  Isaiah  chap.  liv.  and  Ix. 

2  For  a  more  careful  study  of  this  aspect  of  prophecy  as  viewed 
by  the  modern  school  the  reader  is  referred  to  Messianic  Prophecy, 
by  Charles  A.  Briggs,  D.  D.  ;  Messianic  Prophecy,  by  Dr.  Ed- 
ward Riehm  ;  The  Old  Testament  Prophecy  of  the  Completion  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God,  by  Dr.  C.  von  Orelli;  Israel's  Messianic  Hope, 
by  G.  S.  Goodspeed  ;  The  Hope  of  Israel,  by  F.  H.  Woods,  D.  D. 
The  Table  of  Prophecies  or  Allusions  to  Christ  in  the  Appendix 
to  Bagster's  Bible,  or  similar  tables  in  any  of  the  Teacher's  Bibles, 
may  be  examined  to  advantag'e  ;  but  the  student  will  need  to  ex- 
amine the  Old  Testament  passagfes  there  referred  to  in  connection 
with  the  historical  events  with  which  they  are  directly  connected, 
—  otherwise  he  will  be  liable  to  be  misled. 


SCO      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

in  universal  disorder  and  approaching  dissolution. 
In  twelve  years  seven  "  puppet  ldn<rs,"  as  Hosea 
contemptuously  called  them,  reigned  over  Israel. 
Of  these  seven  kings  four  were  assassinated.  Re- 
volution followed  revolution,  but  no  change  brought 
reformation.  "  Shallum  slew  Zechariah ;  Menahem 
slew  Shallum  ;  Pekah  slew  the  son  of  Menahem  ; 
Hoshea  slew  Pekah.  The  vs^hole  kingdom  of  Israel 
was  a  military  despotism,  and,  as  in  the  Roman 
Empire,  those  in  command  came  to  the  throne  ; 
Baasha,  Zimri,  Omri,  Jehu,  Menahem,  Pekah,  held 
military  office  before  they  became  kings."  ^ 

The  public  troubles  would  have  been  quite 
enough  to  make  sore  the  heart  of  so  tender  a  man 
as  Hosea ;  but  he  had  personal  troubles  which  might 
have  made,  but  did  not  make  it  bitter.  His  refer- 
ences to  them  are  brief  and  enigmatical,  but  from 
them  it  is  not  difficult  to  construct  the  tragic  story 
of  his  domestic  life.  He  married.  His  wife  was 
unfaithful  to  him.  His  first  child  he  recognized 
as  his  own,  and  named  him  Jezreel,  from  the 
famous  battlefield  of  Israel.  Then  a  daughter  was 
born,  but  not  until  he  had  discovered  the  infidelity 
of  his  wife,  although  he  had  not  put  her  away. 
Two  years  later  a  son  was  born.  He  had  as  little 
faith  in  the  legitimacy  of  the  son  as  in  that  of  the 
daughter.  The  one  he  called  "Not  knowing  a 
father's  love,"  or  "  The  unloved  one ; "  the  other 
he  called  "  No  kin  of  mine."  Still  he  did  not  di- 
vorce his  wife,  nor  send  her  away  from  him.     He 

1  The  Minor  Prophets,  by  E,  B.  Pusey,  D.  D.,  vol.  i.  pp.  9,  10. 


PREACHERS   OF  REDEMPTION  361 

was  living  in  an  age  like  that  of  the  Stuarts  in 
England,  when  uuchastity  among  men  was  re- 
garded as  honorable  rather  than  shameful,  and 
perhaps  he  thought  a  time  in  which  man  justified 
uuchastity  in  himself  was  not  one  in  which  man 
should  be  vindictive  toward  an  unchaste  woman. 
Certainly  he  did  not  turn  his  faithless  wife  away 
from  him.  But  she  grew  weary  of  him,  —  perhaps 
of  his  very  piety  and  love,  —  and  abandoned  him. 
Prophets  have  rarely  been  rich  men,  either  in  olden 
or  in  modern  times.  And  she  was  ambitious ; 
eager  for  wealth  and  what  wealth  could  give  her. 
She  abandoned  her  husband  for  some  other  lover, 
whose  name  is  unknown  to  us,  who  would  give 
her  earrings  and  jewels  and  fine  dresses.  The  re- 
sult was  inevitable.  She  sank  lower  and  lower  ; 
went  from  lover  to  lover ;  and  finally  sold  herself 
into  a  life  of  public  harlotry.  But  though  Ilosea 
had  never  forgotten,  he  had  always  forgiven  her  ; 
and  when  he  finally  found  her  a  slave  —  by  what 
process  he  traced  her  and  discovered  her  he  does 
not  tell  us  —  he  brought  her  back,  though  she  had 
fallen  so  low  that  he  paid  for  her  less  than  would 
be  paid  for  one  of  the  cheaper  and  poorer  slaves. 
Her  beauty  and  her  charm  were  gone ;  love  for 
her  was  impossible  ;  and  when  he  took  her  he  said 
to  her,  No  more  wife  of  mine  are  you,  no  more 
husband  of  yours  am  I,  but  I  will  be  your  guardian 
and  your  protector.     And  there  the  story  ends. 

Wise  is    the  man   who  knows   how    to  extract 
honey  from  the  thistle ;  wise  the  man  who  knows 


362      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   TUE   HEBREWS 

how  out  of  his  profound  sorrow  to  learu  lessons  of 
God's  love  and  God's  truth.  Such  a  wise  man 
was  Hosea.  He  did  not  devote  himself  to  a  dis- 
cussion of  the  problem  of  moral  evil.  He  did  not 
even  consider  the  question,  Does  God  send  trouble  ? 
But  he  said  to  himself :  This  experience  has  not 
been  sent  to  me  in  vain ;  it  was  a  part  of  the 
divine  plan  that  I  should  have  such  a  wife,  and 
such  an  experience  with  her,  and  that  I  should 
learn  some  lesson  from  it :  what  is  that  lesson  ? 
And  he  learned  it ;  and  this  was  the  lesson  that  he 
learned :  That  God  is  the  faithful  lover,  and  the 
unrighteous  nation  is  the  unfaithful  wife ;  that 
sin  against  God  is  a  sin,  not  against  law  chiefly, 
but  against  love ;  and  love  is  infinite  and  eternal 
and  cannot  be  destroyed.  His  hard  experience 
of  bitter  personal  grief  he  accepted  as  a  parable, 
and  out  of  this  parable  he  learned  for  himself  and 
taught  to  others  the  lesson  of  Israel's  sin  and 
Jehovah's  mercy. 

The  story  of  Hosea  illustrates  the  spirit  and 
method  of  the  prophets.  They  were  teachers  of 
their  own  time  and  to  their  own  time  ;  they  learned 
the  truth  from  their  own  experience  and  taught  it 
to  their  own  genei'ation.  They  were  sometimes 
mistaken  in  the  immediate  applications  of  that 
truth,  as  Hosea  was.  He  fondly  hoped  that  Israel 
would  awake  before  it  was  too  late,  in  response 
to  Jehovah's  love,  as  perhaps  he  had  hoped  to 
awaken  conscience  if  not  love  in  his  unfaithful 
wife  by  his  own  fidelity.     In  both  cases  his  imme- 


PREACHERS    OF  REDEMPTION  363 

diate  hope  was  but  a  dream.  He  thus  conceives 
God  expressing  his  joy  in  the  repentance  and  re- 
turn of  his  people  to  him :  — 

"  I  will  heal  their  backshding,  I  will  love  them  freely  : 
for  mine  anger  is  turned  away  from  liim.  I  will  be  as 
the  dew  unto  Israel :  he  shall  blossom  as  the  lily,  and 
cast  forth  his  roots  as  Lebanon.  His  branches  shall 
spread,  and  his  beauty  shall  be  as  the  olive  tree,  and  his 
smell  as  Lebanon.  They  that  dwell  under  his  shadow 
shall  return  ;  they  shall  revive  as  the  corn,  and  blossom 
as  the  vine :  the  scent  thereof  shall  be  as  the  wine  of 
Lebanon.  Ephraim  shall  say,  What  have  I  to  do  any 
more  with  idols  ?  I  have  answered,  and  wiU  regard 
him :  I  am  like  a  green  fir  tree  ;  from  me  is  thy  fruit 
found."  1 

But  the  people  of  the  Northern  Kingdom,  to 
whom  Hosea  prophesied,  never  did  return  to  Je- 
hovah ;  they  abandoned  their  religion  when  they 
went  into  captivity,  and  in  losing  their  religion  lost 
their  nationality,  and  have  forever  disappeared  from 
the  world's  history.  Looking  for  the  Lost  Tribes 
of  Israel  is  like  looking  for  the  drops  of  rain  which 
have  fallen  on  the  Great  Desert,  or  for  the  cloud 
which  the  sun  has  drunk  up  in  a  July  sky.^  But 
the  love  of  God  which  Hosea  experienced  is  eter- 

^  Hosea  xiv.  4-8. 

2  It  does  not  come  within  the  scope  of  these  articles  to  enter 
into  a  discussion  of  any  of  the  disputed  questions  of  Biblical 
history  or  Biblical  criticism.  It  must  suffice  here  to  say  that 
the  notion  that  the  Lost  Tribes  of  Israel  have  reappeared  in  the 
Anglo-Saxon  or  any  other  race  has  no  historical  warrant,  and 
rests  wholly  upon  a  view  of  prophecy  the  literalism  of  which 
history  proves  to  be  incorrect. 


364      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE   OF   THE    HEBREWS 

nal,  and  the  power  of  that  love  and  the  joy  of  that 
love  in  the  return  of  the  repentant  are  eternal, 
and  in  this  love,  rejoicing  to  rescue  from  sin  who- 
ever will  accept  rescue,  lies  the  secret  of  all  resto- 
ration to  life  from  apostasy,  national  or  individual. 
Hosea  saw  God  truly  ;  for  Israel  he  hoped  beyond 
measure. 

The  prophecies  of  the  Great  Unknown  are  con- 
tained in  the  last  chapters  of  Isaiah,  —  from  the  for- 
tieth to  the  sixty-sixth,  —  apparently  one  prophecy, 
in  which  an  unknown  prophet  gathers  up  the  les- 
sons which  God  had  taught  to  Judah  through  sev- 
enty years  of  captivity,  and  repeats  them  for  the 
instruction  of  the  world  in  all  time  to  come.  He 
is  sometimes  called  the  Second  Isaiah  ;  he  is  more 
properly  designated  as  the  Great  Unknown.  His 
prophecies  are  bound  up  with  those  of  an  Isaiah 
who  lived  a  century  before  ;  but  the  circumstances 
and  the  messages  of  the  two  are  widely  different.^ 
One  prophesied  before  the  captivity,  the  other  as 
the  captivity  drew  to  its  close.  The  preface  to  the 
prophecies  of  the  one  is  a  vehement  denunciation 

1  AH  scholars  of  the  modern  or  literary  school  agree  that  Isaiah 
chapters  xl.-lxvi.  were  written  by  a  different  writer  than  Isaiah 
the  son  of  Amoz,  and  at  the  close  of  the  captivity.  The  inciden- 
tal references  to  Cyrus  (Isa.  xliv.  28  ;  xlv.  1),  who  was  not  liv- 
ing in  the  time  of  the  first  Isaiah,  the  differences  in  style,  the 
differences  in  theme  and  spirit,  and  the  different  commissions,  all 
point  to  this  conclusion.  The  only  reason  for  regarding  these 
later  chapters  as  by  the  author  of  the  previous  prophecies  is  that 
this  is  the  traditional  view,  and  that  the  prophecies  were  bound 
up  together. 


PREACHERS   OF  REDEMPTION  365 

of  the  Jews  as  rulers  of  Sodom  and  the  people  of 
Gomorrah,  and  the  prophecies  themselves  are  full 
of  warnings  of  the  impending  judgment  of  God 
upon  the  nation ;  the  preface  to  the  other  begins 
with  "  Comfort  ye,  comfort  ye,  my  people  ;  "  goes 
on  to  declare  that  they  have  suffered  the  penalty 
which  had  been  threatened,  and  learned  the  lesson 
which  that  penalty  was  meant  to  teach  ;  and  the 
theme  of  the  subsequent  prophecies  is  the  ai)proach- 
ing  redemption  of  the  nation  and  its  restoration  to 
its  land,  its  city,  and  its  temple.  Each  of  the  two 
prophets,  Isaiah  the  son  of  Amoz,  and  the  Great 
Unknown,  has  given  an  account  of  his  call  to  the 
ministry.  That  of  Isaiah  is  given  in  the  sixth 
chapter  of  the  Book  of  Isaiah ;  that  of  the  Great 
Unknown  in  the  fortieth  chapter.  The  latter's  call 
is  simpler  and  less  dramatic  than  that  of  his  pre- 
decessor, but  his  message  is  not  less  explicitly 
given  to  him  :  — 

"  Comfort  ye,  comfort  ye,  my  people,  saith  your  God. 

Speak  ye  tenderly  to  Jerusalem,  and  proclaim  to  her 

That  her  hard  service  is  accomplished,  her  debt  of  guilt  is  dis- 
charged, 

That  she  has  received  from  Jehovah's  hand  double  for  all  her  sins. 

Hark !  there  is  a  cry  : 

Voice.    "  Clear  ye  in  the  •wilderness  the  way  of  Jehovah, 

Make  plain  in  the  desert  a  highway  for  our  God, 

Let  every  mountain  and  hill  suik  down,  and  every  valley  be  up- 
lifted, 

And  let  the  steep  ground  become  level,  and  the  rough  country 
plain ! 

And  the  glory  of  Jehovah  will  be  revealed,  and  all  flesh  will  see  it 
together,  for  the  mouth  of  Jehovah  has  spoken  it. 

The  Prophet.    "Hark! 


366      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   TUE   HEBREWS 

The  Voice.    "  Cry  ! 

The  Prophet.    "  What  shall  I  cry  ? 

All  flesh  is  grass,  and  all  the  strength  thereof  like  the  flowers  of 

field; 
The  grass  withers,  the  flowers  fade,  because  the  breath  of  Jehovah 

has  blown  thereon. 
The  Voice.    "  The  grass  withers,  the  flowers  fade  ; 
But  the  Word  of  our  God  stands  for  ever."  ^ 

This  is  the  fundamental  message  of  the  Great 
Unknown :  Men  are  like  flowers  of  the  field,  liv- 
ing to-day,  perishing  to-morrow  ;  nations,  institu- 
tions, political  and  religious,  pass  like  sliadows 
across  the  mountains  ;  shadows  we  are  and  shadows 
we  pursue  ;  and  yet,  behind  them  all,  manifesting 
himself  through  them  all,  vocal  in  all  history,  re- 
vealing himself  in  all  phenomena,  is  God.  The 
grass  withers,  the  flowers  fade,  but  the  manifesta- 
tion and  utterance  of  the  Eternal  abides  forever  and 
speaks  through  all  transitory  phenomena.  This  is 
the  fundamental  message  of  the  Great  Unknown. 
In  some  sense  like  that  of  Moses,  like  that  of 
Hosea,  like  that  of  the  First  Isaiah,  like  that  of  the 
unknown  writer  of  Deuteronomy,  like  that  of  later 
prophets,  even  down  to  our  own  time,  is  this  word 
of  prophecy  :  The  Eternal  abides  forever,  and  all 
phenomena  are  but  the  ever-changing  manifesta- 
tions of  his  ever  unchangeable  Presence. 

But  if  Isaiah  shared  this  message  with  other  and 
previous  prophets,  he  learned  one  lesson  and  taught 
one  truth  which  no  prophet  before  his  time  had 
seen  and  few  even  of  Christ! anly  instructed  teach- 
ers have  seen  more  clearly. 

1  Isa.  xl.  1-8.     Polychrome  translation,  modified. 


PREACHERS   OF  REDEMPTION  367 

Great  men  give  their  message  to  the  age  in  which 
they  live  ;  great  men  also  grow  out  of  the  age  in 
which  they  live.  If  there  could  have  been  no  Exo- 
dus without  a  Moses,  there  could  have  been  no  Moses 
without  an  Exodus.  If  there  could  have  been  no  Re- 
formation without  a  Luther,  there  could  have  been 
no  Luther  without  a  Reformation.  If  there  coiild 
have  been  no  Puritan  revolt  without  a  Cromwell, 
there  could  have  been  no  Cromwell  without  a  Puri- 
tan revolt.  If  Lincoln  led  us  safely  through  the 
Civil  War,  the  Civil  War  led  Lincoln  safely  from 
the  Illinois  politician  to  the  world  statesman.  It 
is  the  distinctive  characteristic  of  great  men  that 
their  hearts  are  open  to  the  influences  by  which 
they  are  surrounded,  and  hence  open  to  hear  the 
voice  of  God  in  current  events,  and  to  learn  the 
lesson  which  passing  history  has  for  them.  The 
annalist  simply  narrates  events  ;  the  prophet  sees 
behind  them  the  Word  of  God,  and  gives  interpre- 
tation to  the  events.  The  Great  Unknown  was  in 
this  sense  the  product  of  the  age  to  which  he  spoke. 
His  lesson  was  learned  in  the  school  of  experience  ; 
his  message  was  taught  to  him  by  contemporaneous 
history  ;  he  was  the  child  of  the  Exile  ;  —  and  in 
this  Exile  he  learned  a  lesson  which  could  be 
learned  only  in  the  school  of  suffering.  Israel's 
great  teachers  had  been  preeminently  the  sufferers 
of  the  nation  —  just  men  suffering  for  the  unjust: 
Amos,  the  righteous,  bearing  the  burden  of  a  most 
unrighteous  people ;  Hosea,  the  loyal,  bearing  the 
burden  of  a  most  unloyal  people  ;  Micah,  the  peas- 


368      LIFE  AND   LITERATURE   OF  THE  HEBREWS 

ant  prophet,  bearing  the  burdens  of  the  peasant 
poor ;  Isaiah,  the  strong-hearted  hater  of  corrup- 
tion, living  a  lifelong  martyrdom  and  dying  a  mar- 
tyr's death  ;  Jeremiah,  weeping  bitter  tears  for 
sins  that  were  not  his  own.  And  the  Great  Un- 
known dimly  sees  what  even  now  the  Church  of 
Christ  sees  not  too  clearly  —  that  salvation  comes 
through  sorrow,  that  the  suffering  ones  are  the 
victorious  ones,  that  the  redemption  of  the  nation 
must  come,  not  by  a  crowned  king,  but  by  a  Suf- 
fering Servant.  Sometimes  this  suffering  servant 
appears  to  the  prophet  to  be  the  entire  nation  suf- 
fering for  its  own  sins  and  for  the  sins  of  the  world, 
and  working  out  its  own  redemption  by  its  own 
suffering;  sometimes  to  be  some  one  especially 
chosen  out  of  that  nation,  suffering  with  and 
for  them  ;  sometimes  the  prophet  himself ;  in  one 
notable  ode  the  prophet  seems  to  see  dimly  in  the 
vista  of  the  future  a  single  figure  bearing  in  his 
own  person  the  burdens  of  humanity,  a  Sinless 
Sufferer  by  his  suffering  bringing  healing  to 
others  :  ^ 

"  Who  indeed  can  yet  believe  our  revelation  ? 

And  the  arm  of  Jehovah  —  to  whom  has  it  disclosed  itself  ? 

"  He  grew  up  as  a  sapling  before  us, 

And  as  a  sprout  from  a  root  iu  dry  ground, 

He  had  no  form  nor  majesty, 

And  no  beauty  that  we  should  delight  in  him. 

"  Despised  was  he,  and  forsaken  of  men, 

A  man  of  many  pains,  and  familiar  with  sickness, 

1  Isa.  xliv.  1,  2,  21 ;  xlii.  1-4 ;  xlix.  5-10;  Ui.  13-15. 


PREACHERS   OF  REDEMPTION  369 

Yea,  like  one  from  ■whom  men  hide  the  face, 
Despised,  and  we  esteemed  him  not. 

"  But  our  sicknesses,  alone,  he  bore. 
And  our  pains  —  he  carried  them. 
Whilst  we  esteemed  him  stricken, 
Smitten  of  God,  and  a£Bicted. 

"  But  alone  he  was  humiliated  because  of  our  rebellions, 
Alone  he  was  crushed  because  of  our  iniquities  ; 
A  chastisement,  all  for  our  peace,  was  upon  him. 
And  to  us  came  healing  through  his  stripes. 

"  All  we,  like  sheep,  had  gone  astray. 

We  had  turned,  every  one  to  his  own  way, 
While  Jehovah  made  to  light  upon  him 
The  guilt  of  us  all. 

"  He  was  treated  with  rigor,  but  he  resigned  himself, 
And  opened  not  his  mouth. 
Like  a  lamb  that  is  led  to  the  slaughter. 
And  like  a  sheep  that  before  her  shearers  is  dumb. 

"  Through  an  oppressive  doom  was  he  taken  away, 
And  as  for  his  fate,  who  thought  thereon. 
That  he  had  been  cut  off  out  of  the  land  of  the  living, 
That  for  my  people's  rebellion  he  had  been  stricken  to  death  ? 

"  And  his  grave  was  appointed  with  the  rebellious. 
And  with  the  wicked  Lis  tomb. 
Although  he  had  done  no  injustice, 
Nor  was  there  deceit  in  his  mouth. 

"  But  it  had  pleased  Jehovah  to  crush  and  to  hiuniliate  him. 
If  he  were  to  make  himself  an  offering  for  guilt. 
He  would  see  a  posterity,  he  would  prolong  his  days, 
And  the  pleasure  of  Jehovah  would  prosper  in  hia  hands. 


He  would  deliver  from  anguish  his  soul, 
Would  cause  liim  to  see  light  to  the  fulL 


370      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

"  With  knowledge  thereof  my  Servant  will  interpose  for  many, 
And  take  up  the  load  of  their  iniquities. 
Therefore  shall  he  receive  a  possession  among  the  gfreat, 
And  with  the  strong  shall  he  divide  spoil. 

"  Forasmuch  as  he  poured  out  his  life-blood, 
And  let  himself  be  reckoned  with  the  rebellious, 
While  it  was  he  who  had  borne  the  sin  of  many, 
And  for  the  rebellious  had  interposed."  ^ 

Did  the  Great  Unknown,  looking  througli  the 
centuries,  get  a  glimpse  of  Calvary,  of  the  blood- 
stained face  and  the  thorn-crowned  brow,  or  did 
he  only  learn  from  the  anguish  of  the  past  that 
all  victory  comes  through  battle  and  all  salvation 
through  suffering  ?  Did  he  only  see  the  great 
generic  truth,  which  too  many  men  have  failed  to 
see,  even  though  it  is  focused  and  centralized  in 
the  Passion  of  Jesus  the  Christ  ?  I  do  not  know  ; 
only  this  I  know  :  that  nowhere,  not  even  by  Paul, 
is  that  truth  more  splendidly  illustrated  in  litera- 
ture than  in  this  fifty-third  chapter  of  Isaiah,  and 
nowhere  has  it  such  divine  illustration  in  history 
as  in  the  suffering  and  death  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 

Of  the  great  men  of  Hebrew  history  —  save  only 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  who  can  be  classified  with  no 
race  and  no  epoch,  since  he  belongs  to  all  human- 
ity and  all  time  —  the  three  greatest  are  Moses, 
the  Great  Unknown,  and  Paul.  The  first  is  an 
indistinct  figure ;  concerning  his  real  relation  to 
the  Hebrew  people  much  more  has  been  imagined 
than    is   known ;    but  history  will  always  regard 

^  Isa.  liii.,  Polychrome  Bible. 


PREACHERS   OF  REDEMPTION  371 

him  as  the  great  lawgiver,  and  always  impute 
to  him  the  foundations  of  those  free  institutions 
which  the  Jewish  nation  has  given  to  the  world. 
The  second  is  still  more  indistinct.  His  name 
will  never  be  known  until  God  shall  unroll  the 
records  of  his  servants'  histories  in  the  luminous 
glory  of  eternity.  But  he  is  of  all  the  prophets 
the  most  majestic  in  his  style,  as  the  most  spiritual 
in  his  message.  The  truth  that  God  is  one,  and 
is  a  righteous  God,  and  demands  righteousness  of 
his  children,  and  will  accept  nothing  less  and  asks 
for  nothing  more,  he  might  have  learned  from 
Amos  and  Hosea  and  Micah  and  Isaiah  and  Jere- 
miah and  Ezekiel ;  but  he  added  what  none  of 
them  saw,  the  truth  that  the  sorrowing  ones  are 
the  triumphant  ones,  that  suffering  love  is  conquer- 
ing love,  that  sorrow  is  victor.  Christ's  life  and 
death  will  illustrate  and  exemplify  this  truth. 
Paul,  the  poet  philosopher  of  the  first  century,  will 
expound  and  apply  it.  But  neither  literature  nor 
life  has  any  higher  message  to  give  to  the  world 
than  the  message  of  this  prophet,  who  has  exem- 
plified his  own  doctrine  of  self-abnegation  by  leav- 
ing his  writings  to  be  bound  up  with  those  of  a 
predecessor,  while  he  himself  remains  forever  un- 
known. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE   MESSAGE   OF   ISRAEL 

Most  of  us  can  remember,  and  some  of  us  still 
entertain,  an  opinion  respecting  the  Bible  some- 
thing like  the  following  :  That  there  were  in  past 
history  some  thirty  or  forty  men  who  were  specially 
inspired  of  God  to  make  known  to  the  human  race 
the  truth  respecting  his  nature  and  his  law  —  truth 
which  was  undiscoverable  by  human  reason,  but 
which  it  was  necessary  to  know  in  order  to  future 
salvation  ;  ^  that  these  men  wrote  what  God  told 
them  to  write,  and  what  they  thus  wrote  constitutes 
the  Bible.  Sometimes  it  was  contended  that  they 
were  simply  amanuenses  and  wrote  by  dictation, 
word  for  word,  what  God  directed  them;  some- 
times, and  in  later  times  more  generally,  it  was 
believed  that  a  certain  human  element  entered  into 
their  writing,  but  it  was  supposed  that  they  had 
what  is  called  plenary  inspiration,  that  is,  that  they 
were  inspired  upon  all  topics  on  which  they  wrote, 
and  that  on  all  topics  on  which  they  wrote  they 
were  infallibly  accurate.  Some  of  a  more  liberal 
or  lax  faith  held  that  this  inspiration  did  not 
extend  to  all  the  topics  on  which  they  wrote,  but 
only  to  the  moral  and  religious  topics ;  that  they 

^  See,  for  example,  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith,  chap.  i.  §  1. 


THE  MESSAGE   OF  ISRAEL  373 

might  be  in  error  in  their  figures,  historical  dates, 
or  even  scientific  statements  ;  but  that  in  every- 
thing they  said  concerning  the  nature  of  God,  the 
duties  of  man  toward  God,  and  the  duties  of  men 
toward  one  another,  they  were  infallibly  accurate. 
Whichever  of  these  views  was  taken,  it  was  assumed 
that,  so  far  as  morals  and  religion  are  concerned, 
the  Bible  is  an  infallible  standard  of  faith  and 
practice,  that  whatever  errors  may  have  crept  into 
it  have  been  due  to  transmission,  and  not  to  ori- 
ginal mistake  on  the  part  of  the  writers.  The  argu- 
ment for  this  conclusion  was  very  simple.  The 
Bible,  it  is  said,  is  the  Word  of  God,  and  God  is  a 
God  of  truth,  not  of  error.  Into  the  Word  of  God, 
therefore,  no  errors  can  have  crept ;  or  if  they  have, 
it  has  been  through  human  transmission,  —  in  the 
original  autographs  there  could  be  no  error. 

This  view  of  the  Bible  leads  into  many  intellec- 
tual and  moral  difficulties,  so  that  to  many  of  us  it 
has  become  both  intellectually  and  spiritually  un- 
thinkable. I  do  not  propose  to  indicate  those  dif- 
ficulties ;  there  are  enough  engaged  in  that  work ; 
it  is  not  necessary  to  duplicate  their  endeavors. 
My  object  in  this  closing  chapter  is  to  state  the 
other  and  modern  view,  and  in  doing  this,  frankly 
to  reaffirm  that,  in  my  judgment,  between  the 
ancient  and  the  modern  view  there  is  a  radical  dif- 
ference ;  that  those  of  us  who  hold  the  modern  view 
do  not  merely  hold  that  there  are  some  errors  in 
the  Bible  which  have  crept  in  by  transmission,  nor 
that  there  are  some  errors  in  the  Bible  in  scientific 


374   LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

and  historical  statements  which  are  of  no  special 
consequence,  nor  even  that  here  and  there  some 
errors  may  have  crept  in  respecting  moral  and 
religious  truth.  We  hold  an  entirely  different  con- 
ception of  the  origin,  the  nature,  and  the  growth  of 
the  Bible. 

In  the  new  library  building  at  Washington,  the 
artist  has  undertaken  to  interpret  by  symbolic  fig- 
ures upon  the  interior  of  the  dome  the  several  func- 
tions of  the  great  nations  in  the  world's  history. 
Each  nation  is  represented  by  an  allegorical  picture 
with  a  legend  underneath.  The  legend  for  Judea 
is  "Religion;"  for  Greece,  "Philosophy;"  for 
Home,  "  Administration  ;  "  for  Germany,  "  Print- 
ing ; "  for  America,  "  Science."  The  artist  has 
perceived  and  interpreted  a  great  fundamental 
spiritual  truth  —  that  to  every  nation  God  gives  a 
special  mission  ;  that  as  the  Washington  Monument 
was  built,  every  State  contributing  a  stone  to  its 
erection,  so  the  kingdom  of  God  is  built  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  world,  every  nation  contributing  some- 
thing ;  that  in  that  great  development  of  the  human 
race,  which  the  scientists  call  evolution  and  the 
Christian  calls  redemption,  each  nation  has  had 
some  part  to  fulfill ;  that  in  that  great  progress 
toward  what  political  economy  calls  democracy  and 
religious  faith  perceives  to  be  the  kingdom  of  God, 
every  nation  has  some  share. 

The  message  of  the  Hebrew  people  appears  and 
reappears  in  the  Hebrew  writers.  The  Bible  is  not 
merely  an  anthology  of  Hebrew  literature.     It  is 


THE   MESSAGE    OF  ISRAEL  375 

not  merely  a  collection  of  various  messages  from 
prophets  and  apostles  to  the  church  of  the  olden 
time  —  the  Jewish  —  or  the  church  of  the  more 
modern  time — the  Christian.  It  is  true,  these  pro- 
phets were  messengers  to  the  people  of  Israel,  but 
they  were  more  than  that.  They  were  interpreters 
of  Israel  to  itself.  It  was  their  function  to  do 
what  is  the  work  of  the  jjrophet  in  all  ages,  to 
pierce  beneath  the  mere  temporary  experience,  the 
mere  mask  of  humanity,  and  discern  the  innermost 
light  of  the  soul,  which  is  itself  the  life  of  God,  and 
bring  it  to  consciousness.  There  was  a  message  of 
Moses,  and  of  David,  and  of  Isaiah,  and  of  Paul ; 
but  in  all  these  messages,  uniting  them  all  and 
making  them  one  great  message,  there  was  a  mes- 
sage of  Israel  to  the  world,  and  this  message  of 
Israel  to  the  world  the  Bible  interprets  to  us. 

In  reading  the  history  and  literature  of  the 
Hebrew  race  as  they  are  contained  in  the  Bible  the 
omissions  appear  to  the  thoughtful  student  as  strik- 
ing as  the  contributions.  There  is  nothing  indi- 
cating that  the  Hebrew  people  contributed  anything 
whatever  to  art.  Sculpture  and  painting  were  ap- 
parently forbidden  to  them,  lest  the  paintings  and 
the  statues  should  become  the  objects  of  idolatrous 
veneration.  They  contributed  nothing  to  architec- 
ture, save  in  the  structure  of  a  temple  devoted  to 
their  religion,  and  that  appears,  from  the  accounts 
of  it  which  have  come  down  to  us,  to  have  been 
imitated  from  the  Temple  of  the  Egyptians.  They 
contributed  nothinj]:  to  the  world's  music.    In  liter- 


376     LIFE   AND  LITERATURE   OF   THE  HEBREWS 

ature  they  did  nothing  for  literature's  sake,  —  all 
their  literature  is  a  vehicle  for  the  conveyance  of 
ethical  or  spiritual  life.  All  the  great  controver- 
sies in  the  nation  were  religious  controversies  ;  — 
they  fought  no  battles  for  civil  liberty,  they  had 
no  Kossuth,  —  their  controversies  all  turned  upon 
questions  respecting  the  nature  of  God  and  the 
obligations  of  man  toward  God.  They  were  not 
preeminently  a  spiritual  people ;  but  their  life  had 
to  do  almost  exclusively  with  ethical  and  spiritual 
problems.  This  people,  thus  dealing  with  religion, 
existed  as  a  nation  for  about  twelve  centuries, 
beginning  with  the  time  of  Moses  and  ending  with 
the  time  of  Christ,  when  the  organic  existence  of 
the  nation  came  to  an  end,  and  the  people  were 
dispersed.  During  this  time  their  life  found  its 
expression  in  their  literature,  as  the  life  of  aU  peo- 
ples finds  its  expression  in  literature.  It  is  their 
life  thus  expressed  which  I  have  endeavored  to 
interpret  in  this  volume.  Literature,  however,  does 
not  represent  primarily  the  common  thoughts  of 
the  common  people  ;  it  is  the  expression  of  the 
highest  and  best  thoughts  of  the  leaders  of  the 
people.  Goethe  is  essentially  German,  but  not  all 
Germans  could  have  written  "  Faust."  Shakespeare 
is  essentially  English,  but  not  all  Englishmen  could 
have  written  "  Hamlet."  The  character  of  the  peo- 
ple appears  in  their  great  leaders ;  the  life  of  the 
people  is  represented  by  their  great  minds.  What- 
ever may  be  said  of  the  ancient  Hebrews  as  a  race, 
the  leaders  of  the  Hebrew  people  were  essentially 


THE  MESSAGE   OF  ISRAEL  377 

religious.  What  interested  them  were  the  religious 
questions ;  and  their  literature,  so  far  as  it  has  been 
preserved  to  us,  deals  almost  exclusively  vv^ith  the 
great  religious  problems  —  the  nature  of  God,  the 
nature  of  man,  the  relationship  between  God  and 
man,  and  the  way  in  which  man  can  be  brought 
into  right  relationships  with  his  God.  This  litera- 
ture constitutes  the  Old  Testament. 

The  Old  Testament,  then,  according  to  that  mod- 
ern conception  which  underlies  this  volume,  is  the 
record  of  the  message  of  Israel  to  the  world  ;  it  is 
the  literature  of  a  people  commissioned  by  God  to 
search  out,  receive,  and  communicate  to  the  world 
the  answer  to  these  four  questions  :  — 

Who  is  God  ? 

What  is  man  ? 

What  is  the  right  relationship  between  God  and 
man? 

How  can  that  right  relationship  be  brought 
about  ? 

This  literature  Is,  however,  not  primarily  the  ex- 
pression of  the  common  thought  of  the  nation  on 
these  subjects  ;  it  is  the  expression  of  the  thought 
of  their  great  spiritual  leaders.  Often  that  thought 
is  expressed  in  antagonism  to  the  public  sentiment ; 
but  the  errors  against  which  their  leaders  inveigh 
are  not  primarily  political  or  social  errors,  but  re- 
ligious errors.  Their  errors  and  their  right  judg- 
ments, their  beliefs  and  their  disbeliefs,  their  vir- 
tues and  their  vices,  all  mark  this  nation  as  one 
pondering  the  problems  of  religion. 


378      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

The  Old  Testament  is  the  selected  literature  of 
an  elect  people.  I  say  the  selected  literature,  be- 
cause there  are  some  books  written  during  these 
twelve  or  thirteen  centuries  and  still  extant,  which 
are  not  in  our  Protestant  Bible,  and  others  referred 
to  or  quoted  from  in  the  Bible  which  have  perished, 
and  doubtless  still  others  which  have  so  absolutely 
perished  that  there  is  no  reference  to  them  what- 
ever. What  we  have  in  the  Old  Testament  is 
what  in  scientific  terms  would  be  called  the  sur- 
vival of  the  fittest ;  it  is  those  words  of  the  great 
leaders  of  a  great  people  on  the  problems  of  reli- 
gion which  had  such  a  quality  that  they  could  sur- 
vive the  sifting  of  the  centuries. 

This  literature  is  pervaded  by  a  religious  spirit. 
There  are  myths  ;  they  are  the  vehicle  of  religious 
truth.  There  are  legends  ;  they  show  how  far  back 
in  the  patriarchal  age  this  people  was  pondering 
the  problem  of  religion  ;  how  its  very  progenitor, 
Abraham,  centuries  before  the  nation  was  born, 
was  puzzled  by  the  question  of  God,  and  left  his 
native  land  and  turned  his  back  upon  all  the  un- 
satisfying idolatries  that  surrounded  him,  to  see  if 
he  could  find  some  better  knowledge  and  some 
better  fellowship  with  God  than  any  which  those 
idolatries  furnished  to  him.  It  has  folk-lore  ;  the 
folk-lore  shows  us  that  the  stories  which  the  mo- 
thers told  their  children  were  pervaded  by  the 
same  spirit  of  faith  in  God  and  of  humanity  to 
man.  It  has  lyrics  ;  with  possibly  two  or  three 
exceptions  they  are  not  love  songs,  nor  patriotic 


THE    MESSAGE    OF  ISRAEL  379 

songs,  but  songs  of  praise  to  God,  or  of  penitence 
because  of  sin  against  him,  or  of  sorrow  because  of 
exile  from  him,  or  of  gratitude  upon  return  to  him. 
It  has  a  drama  of  love  ;  this  drama  is  for  the  pur- 
pose of  illustrating  that  loyalty  of  love  which  is 
the  foundation  of  the  family.  It  has  a  great  epic 
drama ;  this  drama  deals  with  the  relation  of  the 
soul  to  God  in  time  of  sorrow  and  of  doubt.  It 
has  a  romantic  history  ;  not  that  of  a  great  nation, 
not  that  of  the  heroes  of  a  great  nation,  but  that 
of  the  way  in  which  God  dealt  with  his  people  and 
the  way  in  which  his  people  dealt  with  their  God. 
It  has  eloquent  though  fragmentary  orations  ;  they 
are  not  political  or  literary  ;  they  all  deal  with 
the  problems  of  the  religious  life,  social  or  individ- 
ual. There  is  law ;  its  foundation  is  in  the  pre- 
amble to  the  Hebrew  constitution  :  "  God  spake  all 
these  words,  saying."  From  the  opening  verse  in 
the  collection,  "  In  the  beginning  God  created  the 
heavens  and  the  earth,"  to  the  closing  verse,  "  God 
shall  turn  the  heart  of  the  fathers  to  the  children," 
these  writings  —  law,  history,  legend,  folk-lore, 
drama,  lyrics,  proverbs,  oratory  —  have  but  one 
object,  to  give  the  answer  of  a  divinely  illuminated 
consciousness  to  the  questions,  Who  is  God  ?  What 
is  man  ?  What  is  the  right  relationship  between 
God  and  man  ?  How  can  that  right  relationship 
be  brought  about  ? 

According  to  one  conception  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, thirty  or  forty  men,  unique  in  character, 
aud  separated  from  all  their  fellow  men  by  their 


380      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

extraordinary  gifts  or  their  extraordinary  privi- 
leges, from  some  high  and  unscalable  mountain  top 
hand  down  to  us  a  message,  as  the  angel  Gabriel 
was  supposed  to  have  handed  down  to  Mohammed 
the  message  of  God  written  upon  sheets  of  silk. 
According  to  the  other  conception,  we  see  a  great 
people  climbing  the  mountain  toward  God.  We 
see  them  sometimes  in  the  light,  sometimes  strug- 
gling through  the  mists  and  the  dai-kness ;  at  times 
wandering  to  the  right  hand  or  to  the  left,  at  times 
halting  altogether  or  falling  back  discouraged  ; 
now  stumbling  and  falling,  now  getting  upon  their 
feet  again  and  pushing  on  ;  we  hear  the  voices  of 
their  leaders,  rebuking,  counseling,  entreating,  com- 
manding, encouraging  them  ;  their  voices  rebuke, 
counsel,  entreat,  command,  encourage  us  also ;  and 
we  dare  to  believe  that  where  this  people  have 
climbed  we  too  can  climb,  and  that  the  God  with 
whom  they  have  talked  on  the  mountain  top  will 
talk  to  us  also,  though  we,  too,  stumble,  and  turn 
aside,  and  fall,  and  sometimes  forget  ourselves  and 
our  God.  These  are  the  two  conceptions  of  the 
Bible.  It  is  idle  to  ignore  the  radical  difference 
between  the  two.  I  accept,  frankly  and  unreserv- 
edly, the  second. 

The  message  of  Israel  in  answer  to  the  four 
great  religious  questions  is  first  of  all  that  God  is 
one.  This  now  seems  alphabetic ;  but  for  centu- 
ries after  the  prophet  declared,  "  Hear,  O  Israel, 
the  Lord  our  God  is  one  Lord !  "  ^  no  other  people 

1  Deut.  vi.  4. 


TEE  MESSAGE   OF  ISRAEL  381 

believed  it.  Philosophers  occasionally  held  mono- 
theism as  an  esoteric  doctrine,  but  polytheism  was 
the  popular  and  dominant  faith.  Next  was  the 
message,  God  is  Spirit.  And  since  only  spirit 
meets  spirit,  only  through  the  spiritual  can  man 
have  communion  with  the  Eternal,  therefore  deity 
is  not  to  be  worshiped  by  images  or  pictures  or 
physical  devices  of  any  description.  This  too  is 
quite  plain  to  those  who,  brought  up  in  a  Christian 
atmosphere,  regard  the  worship  of  idols  as  a  curi- 
ous folly  of  the  past ;  but  it  was  radical,  extraordi- 
nary, revolutionary  in  the  time  when  the  law  was 
first  proclaimed,  "  Thou  shalt  not  make  unto  thee 
any  gi-aven  image."  The  third  element  in  the 
message  of  Israel  was  its  declaration  that  God  is  a 
righteous  God.  The  difference  between  the  God 
of  Judaism  and  the  gods  of  the  surrounding  pagan- 
ism was  not  a  difference  of  names ;  it  was  not  that 
one  God  was  called  Jehovah  and  the  other  god  was 
called  Baal.  It  was  this :  that  the  other  religions 
of  the  world  worshiped  force  because  of  fear,  and 
this  one  religion  worshiped  righteousness  because 
of  conscience.  Hence  throughout  the  Old  Testa- 
ment history,  until  the  very  latest  literature,  there 
is  scarcely  a  hint  either  of  punishment  or  of  reward 
in  the  life  to  come,  scarcely  so  much  suggestion  of 
immortality  as  is  to  be  found  in  the  Egyptian  the- 
ology, because  it  was  the  message  of  Israel  that 
God  is  not  to  be  worshiped  for  wages  here  or 
hereafter,  nor  to  escape  punishment  in  this  life  or 
the  next ;  that  he  is  a  righteous  God,  and  because 


382      LIFE  AND   LITERATURE   OF    THE  HEBREWS 

he  is  righteous  Israel  owes  him  reverence.  The 
fourth  element  in  this  message  was  that  this  right- 
eous God  demands  righteousness  of  his  children. 
Even  now  Christendom  has  scarcely  learned  this 
lesson  ;  when  Hebrew  prophets  first  proclaimed  it 
the  world  was  very  slow  to  receive  it.  The  object 
of  pagan  religion  is  rarely,  I  think  never,  to  make 
men  better  ;  it  is  to  show  men  how  they  can  escape 
the  wrath  of  the  gods  or  how  they  can  win  the 
favor  of  the  gods.  But  in  Israel's  law,  with  the 
commands  "  Thou  shalt  have  no  other  gods  before 
me,"  and  "  Thou  shalt  not  make  unto  thee  any 
graven  image "  are  combined  the  great  ethical 
principles  which  are  the  foundation  of  social  order 
—  respect  for  parents,  regard  for  the  rights  of  per- 
son, for  the  purity  of  the  family,  for  property,  for 
reputation.  The  religion  of  Israel  is  built  on  a 
religio-ethical  basis  ;  it  is  the  message  of  Israel 
that  righteousness  is  the  foundation  of  religion  and 
that  religion  is  impossible  dissociated  from  moral- 
ity. And  then,  next  in  this  message  is  an  element 
still  more  radical :  that  this  righteous  God,  who 
demands  righteousness  of  his  children,  demands  no- 
thing else.  Sacrifices,  temple  services,  public  and 
private  worship.  Sabbath  observances,  are  regarded 
simply  as  the  means  by  which  we  are  equipped  by 
God  for  practical  righteousness,  or  by  which  we 
express  our  reverence  for  our  God.  The  whole 
ceremonial  system  of  Judaism,  therefore,  is  a  vol- 
untary system  ;  every  sacrifice  is  the  expression  of 
an  experience,  —  of  gratitude,  of  consecration,  of 


THE  MESSAGE   OF  ISRAEL  383 

penitence,  of  communion.  This  is  the  answer 
which  Israel  in  the  Old  Testament  makes  to  the 
question,  AVho  is  God  ?  He  is  a  person,  a  spiritual 
person,  a  righteous  person,  demanding  righteous- 
ness of  his  children  and  demanding  nothing  else. 

To  the  second  question,  What  is  man  ?  the  answer 
of  Israel  is  equally  explicit.  "  God  made  man  in 
his  own  image :  "  into  man  God  breathed  his  own 
spirit :  ^  this  is  the  fundamental  faith  of  Israel  in 
man,  and  it  colors  all  Israel's  religious  experience. 
And  this,  too,  was  radical ;  for  when  the  Hebrew 
nation  began  to  learn,  and  as  it  learned  to  impart, 
its  message,  the  image  of  God  was  looked  for  in  the 
clouds,  in  the  thunder,  in  the  lightning,  in  the  sea, 
in  the  land,  in  the  mountains,  in  the  beasts  — 
everywhere  but  in  men.  The  message  of  Israel 
transferred  man's  search  for  God  from  the  outer 
world  of  force  to  the  inner  world  of  thought  and 
feeling.  "  The  word,"  that  is,  the  speech  or  revela- 
tion of  God,  said  one  of  the  ancient  prophets,  "  is 
very  nigh  unto  thee,  in  thy  mouth,  and  in  thy 
heart,  that  thou  mayest  do  it."  ^  The  portraitures 
of  God  in  the  Old  Testament  are  based  on  this 
assumption  :  he  is  a  Man  of  War,  a  Shepherd,  a 
Husband,  a  Father.  ^  The  Old  Testament  is  often 
criticised  for  its  anthropomorphic  representations 
of  God.     Its  anthropomorphism  is  its  glory.     For 

1  Gen.  i.  27  ;  ii.  7. 

^  Deut.  XXX.  14.     Compare  Rom.  x.  6-9. 

^  Ps.  xxiv.  8 ;  Exod.  xv.  3  ;  Pa.  zxiii. ;  Isa.  liv.  5 ;  Jer.  iii.  14 ; 
Ps.  ciii.  13. 


384      LIFE  AND   LITERATURE   OF  THE  HEBREWS 

nothing  that  God  has  made  is  so  splendid  as  man. 
The  ocean  ?  man  rides  the  ocean.  The  lightning  ? 
man  catches  the  lightning.  The  forest  ?  man  fells 
the  forests.  It  is  man  with  his  hand  on  the  rudder 
of  the  world,  with  his  thoughts  reaching  out  into 
the  great  universe  beyond,  with  his  heart  of  love, 
daring  to  do,  to  suffer,  to  die  —  it  is  man  that  is 
in  the  image  of  God  ;  even  in  ruin  he  is  a  divine 
ruin.  Through  man  God  is  to  be  seen  ;  and  God 
is  liker  to  man  than  to  anything  else  he  has  ever 
made : 

"  Thou  hast  made  him  but  little  lower  than  God, 

And  crownest  him  with  glory  and  honor. 

Thou  madest  him  to  have  dominion  over  the  works  of  thy  hands  j 

Thou  hast  put  all  things  under  his  feet."  ^ 

This  is  the  answer  of  Israel's  message  to  the 
question,  What  is  man  ? 

To  the  third  question.  What  is  the  relationship 
between  God  and  man,  the  message  of  Israel  replies : 
"  God  is  the  great  companion,  the  loving,  yet  terri- 
ble friend  of  his  inmost  soul,  with  whom  he  holds 
communion  in  the  inmost  sanctuary  of  his  heart,  to 
whom  he  turns  or  should  turn  in  any  hour  of  his 
adversity  or  happiness."  ^  To  Israel  God  is  not  an 
hypothesis  to  account  for  the  phenomena  of  crea- 
tion ;  not  an  absentee  God  who  occasionally  inter- 
feres with  the  world  on  the  petition  of  his  children. 

1  Ps.  viii.  5,  6. 

2  John  Cotter  Morison :  The  Service  of  Man,  page  181.  The 
quotation  is  the  more  significant  because  it  comes  from  one  who 
is  a  disbeliever  in  revelation  of  any  description  and  an  agnostic  as 
regards  God. 


THE  MESSAGE   OF  ISRAEL  385 

This  notion  of  God  belongs  to  Baalism ;  Elijah 
overwhelms  its  devotees  with  his  sarcasm :  "  Cry- 
aloud,  for  he  is  a  god :  either  he  is  musing,  or  he 
has  gone  aside,  or  he  is  on  a  journey,  or  peradven- 
ture  he  sleepeth  and  must  be  awaked."  ^  Israel 
believes  in  a  living  God  ;  a  God  who  is  in  his 
world  of  nature  and  his  world  of  men  —  a  law- 
giver with  Moses,  an  architect  with  Bezaleel,  a 
soldier  with  Joshua,  a  singer  with  David,  a  preacher 
with  Amos,  a  statesman  with  Isaiah  :  —  in  all  men, 
not  merely  in  these  thirty  or  forty  men  ;  in  all  time, 
not  merely  in  these  twelve  or  fourteen  centuries ;  in 
all  the  world,  not  merely  in  this  little  province.  It 
is  not  the  message  of  Israel  that  God  was  once  in 
his  world,  once  gave  law  to  Moses,  once  inspired 
Joshua  with  courage,  once  brooded  David  with 
song,  once  visited  Isaiah  in  the  temple  and  Ezekiel 
in  the  desert ;  it  is  that  God  is  in  his  world,  new 
creating  in  every  spring,  ruling  over  every  storm, 
giving  his  law  to  all  consciences,  inspiring  all 
heroic  souls  to  valiant  deeds,  singing  in  every  singer 
of  pure  and  lofty  verse,  revealing  himself  to  every 
prophet  of  his  righteousness  and  his  love. 

To  the  fourth  question.  How  can  the  right  rela- 
tionship be  brought  about  between  God  and  men, 
the  Hebrew  message  is  not  less  explicit.  It  is 
terribly  clear  in  its  enunciation  that  such  right 
relationship  does  not  now  exist.  It  declares  that 
God  is  of  purer  eyes  than  to  see  iniquity  ;  that  he 
cannot  and  will  not   suffer  it ;   and   that  man   is 

^  1  Kings  xviii.  27. 


386      LIFE  AND   LITERATURE   OF  THE  HEBREWS 

iniquitous,  deliberately,  willfully,  continuously,  ha- 
bitually so}  But  it  also  plainly  shows  what  is 
necessary  to  deliver  man  from  this  sin,  to  remove 
and  destroy  this  obstacle  between  the  soul  and  God, 
and  to  make  them  truly  one  in  the  unity  of  a  mutual 
love.  It  declares  that  God  can  never  accept  a  lower 
standard  than  that  of  perfect,  divine  righteousness, 
but  that  if  man  accepts  this  standard  and  sincerely 
and  earnestly  endeavors  to  make  it  his  own,  no 
other  condition  of  comradeship  is  required ;  that 
God  desires  this  comradeship  with  man,  longs  for 
it,  is  eager  for  it,  but  that  it  is  possible  only  as 
man  reconciles  himself  with  God  by  abandoning 
his  sin,  by  accepting  God's  law  and  loyally  obey- 
ing it,  by  accepting  God's  love  and  loyally  respond- 
ing to  it.  He  has  simply  to  seek  God,  to  call  upon 
him,  to  forsake  his  wicked  ways  and  his  unright- 
eous thoughts  and  return  to  the  Lord,  and  the 
Lord  will  have  mercy  upon  him  and  will  abun- 
dantly pardon.  His  past  sins  need  not  prevent ; 
for  God  will  blot  them  out  as  a  thick  cloud  is 
blotted  out  by  the  sun  ;  he  will  cast  them  into  the 
depths  of  the  sea ;  though  they  were  as  scarlet, 
they  shall  be  white  as  snow ;  though  they  were  red 
as  crimson,  they  shall  be  as  wool.^  No  sacrifice  is 
necessary  to  propitiate  God,  or  to  turn  away  his 
wrath  or  win  his  favor.    Sacrifice  is  only  the  human 

^  For  a  summary  of  the  Old  Testament  indictment  of  man  see 
Paul's  quotations  gathered  from  various  Old  Testament  writings 
and  contained  in  Romans  iii.  10-18. 

2  Isa.  xliv.  22  ;  Mieah  vii.  19 ;  Isa.  i.  18. 


THE  MESSAGE   OF  ISRAEL  387 

expression  of  penitence,  consecration,  thanksgiving. 
It  is  only  a  symbolical  witness  that  to  destroy  sin 
costs  much ;  that  sin  is  not  a  light  matter  to  be 
easily  dismissed  and  readily  forgotten.  But  God, 
though  he  accepts  sacrifice  as  man's  expression 
of  loyalty  and  love,  does  not  require  it.  He  re- 
quires only  that  the  penitent  cease  to  do  evil  and 
learn  to  do  well,  that  he  begin  forthwith  to  do 
justly,  love  mercy,  and  walk  humbly  in  fellowship 
with  his  God,^  For  God  is  more  than  a  righteous 
God  ;  he  is  a  pitying  God  ;  he  is  "  great  in  mercy ;  " 
he  is  "  long-suffering  ; "  he  not  only  demands  right- 
eousness, he  helps  to  righteousness  all  who  wish  to 
be  righteous  ;  he  not  only  forgives  sin,  he  destroys 
it,  and  he  leads  the  forgiven  sinner  in  the  paths  of 
righteousness.^ 

This  is  the  message  of  Israel  to  the  world  :  that 
God  is  a  righteous  person,  who  demands  righteous- 
ness of  his  people  and  demands  nothing  else ;  that 
man  is  of  kin  with  God ;  that  the  relationship 
between  God  and  man  is  one  of  comradeship ;  that 
to  enter  into  that  comradeship  man  must  desire  it 
and  endeavor  to  conform  his  life  to  it ;  and  that  if 
he  does  so  desire  and  so  endeavor  he  may  be  assured 
of  God's  readiness  to  receive  and  to  help  him.  But 
Israel  does  not  understand  his  message  at  first.  In 
the  Old  Testament  we  see  him  gradually  learning 
the  message  which  in  time  he  is  to  give  to  the 

1  Micab  vi.  6-8. 

2  Exod.  xxxiv.  6, 7;  Num.  xiv.  18;  2  Chron.  xxx.  9;  Ps.  xziii.  3; 
Ixxxv.  2  ;  Ixxxvi.  5,  15 ;  ciii.  8  ;  cxlv.  8,  9. 


388      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

world.  First  he  conceives  of  Jehovah  as  one  God 
among  many  gods,  but  superior  to  them  all,  —  "  no 
other  god  like  unto  thee  ;  "  as  a  provincial  God  who 
dwells  in  Jerusalem  and  rules  in  Palestine,  but  not 
in  Egypt  or  in  Babylon  ;  only  gradually  does  Israel 
learn  that  Jehovah  is  God  alone,  and  all  the  gods 
of  the  heathen  are  what  Jeremiah  calls  them,  — 
"  woi-gods."  At  first  Israel  thinks  of  him  as  a 
just  Judge  who  cannot  endure  the  wicked,  who 
will  destroy  them,  and  who  commissions  Israel  to 
destroy  them.  Only  very  gradually  does  Israel 
learn  that  there  is  a  higher  justice  than  that  which 
destroys,  that  mercy  is  not  incongruous  with  jus- 
tice, that  the  highest  righteousness  is  not  that 
which  destroys  men,  but  that  which  transforms 
them.  At  first  he  thinks  of  God's  love  as  confined 
to  Israel ;  Israel  alone  is  of  kin  to  God ;  the  hea- 
then are  outcasts,  of  a  different  blood,  of  a  differ- 
ent spirit ;  not  until  the  captivity  does  he  learn 
that  God  cares  for  pagans  also,  that  he  will  have 
mercy  on  Nineveh  if  it  repents,  that  he  will  call 
Cyrus  the  Persian  to  be  his  minister.  At  first  hu- 
manity appears  to  Israel  to  be  required  only  toward 
Israelites ;  the  Jew  must  not  permanently  enslave 
a  Jew,  but  may  so  enslave  a  pagan ;  he  must  not 
take  usury  of  a  Jew,  but  may  of  a  pagan ;  he  must 
not  eat  unclean  meats,  but  may  reserve  them  for 
the  stranger  in  the  land  ;  ^  not  until  later  does  he 
learn  that  he  is  to  do  justly  toward  all  men,  and 

1  Exod.  XX.  1,  2 ;  Deut.  xv.  12-18 ;  Lev.  xrv.  45,  46 ;  Deut. 
xxiii.  19,20;  xiv.  21. 


THE  MESSAGE   OF  ISRAEL  389 

exercise  mercy  for  all.  At  first  he  conceives  of  his 
relationship  to  God  as  that  of  a  soldier  to  his  com- 
mander-in-chief, or  that  of  a  subject  to  his  king ; 
obedience  by  a  dogged  resolution  to  an  external 
law  is  his  highest  conception  of  religion  ;  not  until 
later  does  religion  grow  to  be  divine  comradeship, 
and  obedience  the  conformity  of  character  to  char- 
acter, not  of  conduct  to  statute  laws.  At  first  he 
imagines  that  Jehovah  must  be  propitiated  by  sac- 
rifices ;  for  a  long  time  the  two  conceptions,  that 
of  the  pagans  that  God  must  be  appeased  by  sacri- 
fices, and  that  of  the  prophets  that  God  is  himself 
self-sacrificing,  struggle  for  the  mastery ;  it  is  not 
until  the  time  of  the  Great  Unknown  that  the  idea 
becomes  clear,  even  to  the  mind  of  the  most  spirit- 
ual, that  it  is  by  his  own  suffering  the  Servant  of 
Jehovah  will  redeem  Israel ;  that  the  sacrifice  is 
not  for  God,  but  for  the  people  ;  that  God  him- 
self takes  the  burdens,  the  sorrows,  and  the  sins  of 
his  people  on  himself.  This  is  the  Old  Testament ; 
the  literature  of  an  ancient  people  commissioned 
first  to  learn,  then  by  the  very  process  of  their 
learning  to  teach  the  world,  that  God  is  a  righteous 
person,  that  man  is  his  child,  that  the  relationship 
between  the  two  is  one  of  comradeship,  that  to 
enter  into  this  comradeship  nothing  is  necessary 
but  to  accept  God's  love  and  loyally  give  him  our 
love  in  return. 

And  yet  in  all  his  history  Israel  is  seen  expec- 
tant of  a  clearer  understanding :  he  is  seen  in  quest 
of  his  message  ;  he  is  seen  with  his  face  toward  the 


390      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

future  looking  for  a  clearer  disclosure  of  the  liglit 
and  a  larger  endowment  of  the  life.  The  pro- 
phets prophesy  in  part ;  the  message  is  given  in 
fragments,  — "  by  divers  portions  and  in  divers 
manners,"  as  says  one  of  the  New  Testament 
interpreters  of  this  message.^  Moses  is  reported  as 
asking  to  see  the  glory  of  God  ;  Gideon  as  doubt- 
ing if  Jehovah  is  indeed  with  his  people  ;  Job  as 
questioning  if  he  is  a  righteous  God,  and  if  so  why 
life  is  so  full  of  undeserved  and  seemingly  unjust 
suffering ;  the  Psalmist  as  seeking  for  him  as  the 
thirsty  hart  panteth  for  the  water  brooks  ;  even 
the  Great  Unknown  as  longing  for  him  to  rend  the 
heavens  and  come  down  and  manifest  himself.^  In 
the  earliest  traditions  of  this  people  their  God  is 
represented  as  putting  enmity  between  man  and 
the  powers  of  evil ;  as  warning  man  that  those 
powers  will  poison  humanity,  but  also  as  promising 
man  that  humanity  will  at  last  utterly  destroy 
them.  In  the  successive  calls  to  Israel  to  engage 
in  this  battle  of  the  ages,  Israel  has  the  pledge  and 
the  promise  of  his  Father's  help  and  the  assurance 
through  his  Father's  help  of  final  victory.  In  the 
first  revelation  of  himself  to  Moses  he  appears  as  a 
Deliverer,  as  one  who  has  seen  the  burdens  of  his 
people,  has  made  them  his  own,  and  is  coming  to 
them  to  set  them  free.^     From    this    birthday  of 

1  Heb.  i.  1,  Rev.  Ver. 

2  Exod.  xxxiii.  18  ;  Judg.  vi.  13  ;  Job  Ix.  21-24  ;  Ps.  xlii.  1  ;  Isa. 
Ixiv.  1,  2. 

*  "The  Mosaic  conception  of  God  ...  is  a  conception  of  God 


THE   MESSAGE    OF   ISRAEL  391 

the  nation  it  is  the  constant  burden  of  the  prophets 
that  is  intimated  to  him  that  One  is  coming  to 
Israel,  —  described  sometimes  as  a  prophet,  some- 
times as  a  king,  sometimes  as  a  shepherd,  sometimes 
as  a  princely  priest,  sometimes  as  a  suffering  ser- 
vant of  the  Lord,  —  who  will  as  a  prophet  interpret 
God  to  them,  as  a  king  show  them  the  full  mean- 
ing of  the  divine  law,  as  a  priest  bring  them  back 
to  the  God  they  have  forsaken,  as  a  shepherd  enfold 
and  feed  and  protect  them,  and  as  a  suffering  ser- 
vant of  the  Lord  bear  the  burdens  of  their  sins 
with  them  and  for  them.^  Those  who  accept  his 
message,  are  loyal  to  his  law,  and  share  both  his 
burdens  and  their  own  with  him,  he  will  lead  to 
victory.  And  when  that  victory  is  won,  the  evils 
which  sin  has  brought  into  the  world  will  disappear 
from  the  world :  wars  will  cease ;  pestilence  and 
disease  will  abate ;  death  itseK  will  be  conquered  ; 
love  and  life  will  reign  .^ 

the  Deliverer."  Ancient  Ideals,  by  H.  0.  Taylor,  vol.  ii.  102.  "  The 
fundamental  thought  (of  Mosaism)  should  rather  be  said  to  centre 
exclusively  in  the  knowledge  of  the  true  Deliverer.  ...  In  this 
sense  that  ancient  Mosaic  age  includes  within  it  the  Messianic,  that 
is,  the  Christian,  not  as  comprehended  by  distinct  consciousness  or 
direct  effort,  but  as  realized  through  the  inherent  germinating 
force  of  the  fundamental  idea,  which  here  arose,  and  in  its  own 
time  necessarily  led  to  it."  History  of  Israel,  by  Heinrich  Ewald, 
vol.  ii.  pp.  109,  113.  The  whole  section  (ii.)  on  the  Develop- 
ment and  Maturity  of  the  Theocracy  under  Moses  and  Joshua  is 
of  the  highest  interpretative  value. 

^  Deut.  xviii.  15  ;  Ps.  Ixxii. ;  ex.  4  ;  Ezek.  xxxiv.  23  ;  Zeeh.  vi. 
12 ;  Isa.  liii. 

^  Isa.  ii.  1-4  ix.  1-7 ;  xi.  1-9 ;  Ix. ;  Ixi. ;  Hos.  xiii.  14 ;  Zeeh. 
xiv,  11. 


392      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

Two  or  three  centuries  passed  away  after  the 
last  contribution  of  any  note  had  been  made  to 
the  unique  literature  of  this  Hebrew  people.  Dur- 
ing those  two  or  three  centuries  no  new  lawgiver 
interpreted  the  divine  law,  no  new  poet  sang  of  the 
divine  love,  no  new  prophet  spoke  of  man's  duty  or 
God's  grace.  Then  a  new  prophet  appeared  in 
Palestine.  His  life  was  brief  and  uneventful ;  his 
message  was  a  continuation  of  the  message  of 
Israel,  but  to  it  he  gave  a  new  significance.  He 
taught  that  God  is  righteous  and  demands  right- 
eousness of  his  children,  and  demands  nothing  else  ; 
but  to  righteousness  he  gave  a  clearer  meaning,  if 
not  a  new  interpretation.  He  taught  that  God  is  a 
Father  who  cares  for  men,  cares  for  the  little  chil- 
dren, cares  even  for  the  insignificant  sparrows.  He 
taught  that  righteousness  in  man  must  be  more 
than  obedience  to  a  righteous  law ;  it  must  be 
spontaneous  ;  must  spring  from  the  heart ;  must 
include  reverence  in  spirit,  chastity  in  thought, 
meekness  and  lowliness  of  mind,  the  peace-loving 
and  peace-making  disposition,  the  nature  which 
loves  and  prays  for  one's  enemies.  He  taught  that 
God  will  help  men  to  this  spirit  if  they  desire  it, 
that  he  is  more  ready  to  give  his  own  spirit  of  love 
to  those  that  ask  for  it  than  fathers  are  to  give 
bread  to  their  children  when  they  are  hungry,  that 
the  spirit  of  righteousness,  that  is,  of  love,  can  be 
had  by  any  who  seek  for  it.  He  told  his  race  that 
the  kingdom  of  heaven,  long  promised  and  long 
expected,  was  not  afar  off,  that   it  was  close  at 


THE  MESSAGE   OF  ISRAEL  393 

hand ;  it  was  no  other  than  the  spirit  of  obedience 
and  fidelity,  of  lo3'alty  and  love  to  God,  and  service 
of  men,  and  that  it  could  only  grow  gradually  and 
despite  much  opposition.  His  teaching  was  illus- 
trated by  his  life.  He  seemed  utterly  careless  of 
the  things  for  which  men  generally  are  most  eager, 
—  wealth,  fame,  social  position,  power.  He  lived 
wholly  for  others.  The  contradictions  of  his  char- 
acter constitute  an  enigma  which  the  world  has 
never  been  weary  of  studying :  his  fearlessness  in 
defending  others,  and  his  meekness  when  assailed 
himself ;  his  quiet  assumption  of  authority  over  his 
followers,  and  his  absolute  self-abnegation  ;  his  pu- 
rity of  life,  and  his  understanding  of  and  sympathy 
with  every  form  of  sin ;  his  unassailable  dignity 
and  his  approachableness  ;  his  disregard  of  the  con- 
ventions and  ceremonies  of  religion,  and  his  trans- 
parent devoutness  of  spirit ;  his  humility  and  his 
challenge  to  his  enemies  to  search  the  record  of  his 
life  for  a  flaw ;  his  reverence  and  the  familiarity  of 
his  intercourse  with  God ;  his  joyousness  and  his 
participation  in  the  sins  and  sorrows  of  the  world. ^ 
The  leaders  of  his  time  arrayed  themselves  against 
him  as  an  iconoclast ;  the  people  regarded  him  with 
admiration  as  a  prophet ;  his  immediate  followers 
believed  that  he  was  the  One  of  whom  the  ancient 
prophets  had  spoken  as  he  that  was  to  come  and 
bring  with  him  a  new  and  divine  life  to  the  world. 

^  See,  for  an  admirable  presentation  of  this  contrariety  of 
character  in  Christ,  chapter  x.  in  Nature  and  the  Supernatural, 
by  Horace  Bushnell. 


394      LIFE   AND   LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

After  his  deatli  they  recalled  and  recorded  his  first 
sermon,  in  which  he  had  declared  that  he  had  come 
to  fulfill  those  ancient  prophecies ;  his  private  con- 
versations with  them,  in  which  he  had  indicated  still 
more  clearly  this  as  his  mission;  the  trial  scene 
before  the  Jewish  Sanhedrim,  in  which,  put  upon 
the  stand  and  under  oath,  he  had  affirmed  that  he 
was  the  expected  Messiah;  the  trial  scene  before 
the  Roman  procurator,  in  which  he  had  affirmed 
that  he  was  a  king,  and  had  come  to  establish  a 
kingdom  on  the  earth,  not  by  force  of  arms,  but 
by  force  of  truth.  His  death  disheartened  and 
scattered  his  followers;  but  their  faith  in  his  resur- 
rection gave  them  new  courage  and  a  new  under- 
standing of  him  and  his  mission.  Since  that  time, 
and  apparently  due  to  his  influence,  a  new  life  has 
appeared  in  the  world.  He  contributed  nothing  to 
architecture,  yet  there  are  no  such  noble  monu- 
ments as  those  built  to  his  memory ;  nothing  to 
song,  yet  his  inspiration  has  created  a  new  order 
of  music ;  nothing  to  art,  yet  his  spirit  has  per- 
meated most  of  modern  art ;  nothing  to  literature, 
yet  no  one  teacher  has  created  so  jarofound  an  influ- 
ence on  literature  as  he  has  exerted;  he  promul- 
gated no  laws  and  instituted  no  reforms,  yet  where 
the  story  of  his  life  and  death  has  gone,  slavery  has 
been  abolished,  government  has  grown  more  just, 
war  has  been  ameliorated,  education  has  become 
general,  and  in  some  communities  practically  uni- 
versal, and  the  home  has  been  recreated ;  he  taught 
no  creed,  formulated  no  ritual,  and  organized  no 


THE  MESSAGE   OF  ISRAEL  395 

church,  but  his  Influence  on  religious  philosophy 
has  far  transcended  that  of  the  greatest  of  an- 
cient philosophers,  and  his  name  is  mingled  with 
that  of  his  Father  in  the  prayers  and  praises  of  the 
great  liturgies  of  Chi-istendom,  and  scores  of  eccle- 
siastical organizations  claim  the  authority  of  his 
name.  More  than  all,  his  influence  has  almost 
created  the  virtues  of  meekness,  gentleness,  and 
forbearance,  and  taught  the  world  how  to  unite 
them  with  those  of  sturdiness,  courage,  and  energy. 
If  he  is  not  the  prophet  whom  Moses  foretold,  he 
has  done  more  than  all  other  prophets  to  interpret 
the  divine  nature  to  man ;  if  he  is  not  the  king 
whom  the  unknown  author  of  the  Seventy-second 
Psalm  anticipated,  his  spirit  has  done  more  than 
that  of  all  other  lawgivers  combined  to  imbue  law 
with  a  new  and  humane  spirit ;  if  he  is  not  the 
shepherd  whom  Ezekiel  foresaw,  he  has  done  more 
than  all  other  shepherds  to  protect  and  enrich  the 
life  of  man  ;  if  he  is  not  the  princely  priest  whom 
Zechariah  saw,  he  has  done  more  than  all  other 
priests  to  bring  humanity  back  to  God  ;  if  he  is  not 
the  suffering  servant  of  whom  the  Great  Unknown 
had  a  mystical  vision,  his  life  and  death  have  given 
to  suffering  a  new  and  glorious  significance. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  answer  the  questions  here 
barely  suggested.  Yet  I  cannot  close  this  volume 
in  the  life  and  literature  of  the  ancient  Hebrews 
without  saying  that  I  do  not  see  how  any  one 
can  accept  the  general  interpretation  of  that  life 
and  literature  here  given,  and  not  see  in  Jesus  of 


396      LIFE   AND    LITERATURE    OF   THE   HEBREWS 

Nazareth  the  fulfillment  of  Israel's  aspirations ; 
not  see,  at  least,  that  he  more  than  any  other  of 
the  sons  of  men,  more,  I  will  say,  than  all  the  other 
sons  of  men,  gives  answer  to  the  four  great  ques- 
tions of  religion:  his  god-like  character  answers  the 
question.  Who  is  God  ;  his  simple,  spontaneous, 
earnest  and  radiant  life  answers  the  question,  What 
should  man  be  ;  his  unity  with  the  Father  inter- 
prets that  ideal  comradeship  between  the  spirit  of 
man  and  the  spirit  of  God  which  should  be  the  goal 
of  all  life ;  his  passion  tells  us  what  we  who  possess 
any  measure  of  that  comradeship  are  to  do  that  we 
may  impart  the  divine  life  to  others. 


INDEX 


INDEX  OF  SCEIPTURE  REFERENCES 


Citations  are  usually  to  be  found  in  the  footnotes  beginning  on  the  pages 
here  referred  to.  A  reference  occurring  twice  in  the  note  is  thus  indicated  : 
(2  ref.);  three  times,  (3  ref.). 


Genesit. 

FAOE 

1.27 383 

i.28,29 357 

ii.7 383 

iii.  15 357 

vi.20 7 

vii.  2,  3,  9 7 

ix.  8-17 357 

xii.  1-3 357 

xii.  1-7 357 

xiii.  14-17 357 

xxii.8 162 

xxiv 169 

xxviiL  16 138 

Exodus. 

iii.  7,8 367 

xu 98 

liu.  14,  15 125 

XV.3 383 

ivui.  (19-26) 120 

xix.  5 344 

xix.  5,  6 357 

XX.  1,2 388 

XX.  1-17 102 

XX 102 

IX.  1-xxiv.  7 17 

ix-xxiv.  7 36 

XX.  23-25 138 

XX.  24 160 

XX. 24-26 129 

xxii.  1-14 125 

xxii.  5,  6,  7 107 

xxii.  21 124 

xxii.  21,  22 126 

xxii.  29,30 129 

xxiii.  14-19 129 

xxxiii.  18 390 

xxxiv.  6,7 387 

Levilicus. 

i.  3 154 

vi.2-7 158 


xvi 159 

xvii.  4,  8,  9 160 

xvii.  4,  8,  9,  11 145 

xvii.  11 159 

xix.  10,  15 126 

xix.  15 124 

xxiv.  22 124 

xxiv.  22 126 

XXV.  45,  46 388 

XX vii.  30-32 153 

Numbers. 

ix.  5 98 

xi.  16,  17 124 

xiv.  1-5,  10 124 

xiv.  18 387 

xxi.  14 36 

XXV.  12,  13 358 

xxvii.  18-23 124 

XXIV.  19 252 

Deuteronomy. 

i.9-14 124 

i.  17 124 

i.  17 126 

V 102 

V.  6-11 108 

vi.  4 380 

vi.7 125 

X.  19 126 

xii-xxvi 36 

xii.  6,  11,  14,  26 145 

xii.  12,  18f.  (2  ref.)..  126 

xui.  1-5 830 

xiv.21 388 

xiv.  22-28 153 

xiv.27 126 

xiv.  27,29 126 

xiv.  28f 136 

xiv.  29 126 

zv.  7-11 126 

XV.  12-18 388 

XV.  13-15 126 

xvi.  11,  14  (3  ref.)  ...126 


xvi.  19 124 

xvi.  19 126 

xvii.  14-20 124 

xvii.  18 122 

xviii.  15 391 

xviii.  15-19 358 

xviii.  21,  22 126 

xxi.  1-9 125 

xxu.  1-1 126 

xxii.  8 125 

xxiii.  19,20 121! 

xxiii.  19,  20 388 

xxiv.  G,  12f 126 

xxiv.  7 125 

xxiv.  7 126 

xxiv.  14f 126 

xxiv.  14.  15 126 

xxiv.  16 125 

xxiv.  17,  19,  20,  21  ..126 

xxiv.  19-22 179 

XXV.  7-9 181 

xxvi.  11  (2  ref.) 126 

xxvi.  11,  12f 126 

xxvi.  12f 126 

xxvii.  19 126 

XXX.  14 383 

XXX.  15.  16 343 

xxxi.   9-13 125 

xxxiii.  10 125 

Joshua. 

i.  1-9 357 

V.  10,  11 98 

viii.2 8 

ix.  18-21 124 

x.  12,  13 7 

I.  13 36 

X.13 37 

X.40 8 

xxiv.  15-21 344 

Judge*. 

ii.  11 143 

V 36 


400        INDEX  OF  SCRIPTURE  REFERENCES 


vi,13 390 

vi.24 142 

ix.8-15 171 

XV.  4 50 

XV.  16 174 

Ruth. 

i.  16 179 

iii.  9-13 252 

iv.  1-8 252 

iv.22 177 

1  Samuel. 

X.5 346 

X.25 36 

XV.  21 142 

xvi.  5 142 

XX.  6 142 

2  Samuel. 

i.  17-27 36 

i.  18 36 

i.l8 37 

vii 33 

vii.  11-16 357 

xii.  1-7  126 

xviii.  1,2 48 

xxiv.  1 7 

1  Kings. 

iv.32,  33 36 

xi.  41 36 

xii.  28,29 143 

xvi.  31,  32 143 

xvu.  4,6 50 

xviii.  27 385 

xviii.  29-38 142 

XX 49 

xxi.  1-16 125 

xxi.  17-24 126 

2  Kings. 

vi.  1-7 50 

xvii 118 

xxi.  1-16 119 

xxiii.  4 119 

xxiii.  13 143 

xxiii.  21-23  98 

xxiv.  4 119 

1  Chronicles. 

xiii.  1-8 124 

xviii 287 

xxi.  1 7 

xxi.  29 98 

xxii.  13 98 

xxiii.  14,  15 98 

xxvii.  24 36 

xxvii.  25,  34 48 

xxix.  29 36 

2  Chronicles. 

vii.  12 145 

xi.  29 36 


xii.  15 36 

xvii.  8,9 125 

XX.  31 36 

xxiii.  1-10 119 

xxvi.  18-21 145 

XXX.  1 98 

XXX.  9 387 

XXX.  22 125 

xxxiii.  19 36 

xxiv.  6,9 98 

xxxiv.  14 98 

XXXV.  1-19 98 

XXXV.  2,3 125 

Ezra. 

iv 38 

iv.  6 183 

v 38 

vi 38 

vi.  19,  20 98 

ix.  11,  12 178 

X.  10-17 178 

Nehemiah. 

viii.  5-8 125 

ix.  9-23 98 

xiu.  23-27 178 

Esther. 

ih.  8-11 192 

iv.  14,  16 187 

v.6-8 192 

vi.  3,7-10 192 

vii.  3-6 192 

Job. 

ii.9 242 

iii.  20-23 244 

iv.  7-9 245 

vi.  2-4 248 

vi.  28-30 249 

vii.  9 245 

vii.  20 253 

viii.  3-7 245 

ix.  2,  3 249 

ix.  15-24 255 

ix.  21-24 390 

ix.  28-31 249 

ix.  32,33 2&1 

x.3-7 250 

xiii.  7,8 247 

xiv.  7-14 252 

xix.  25-27 252 

xxi.  7-15 250 

xxi.  17-20 250 

xxii.  5-11 247 

xxiii.  3-9 255 

xxiii.  8,  9,  10 252 

xxvii.  8-23 256 

xxviii 256 

xxviii.  1-28 257 

xxix.  2-17 239 

xxxi.  35-37 254 

xxxii.-xxxvii 256 


xxxvui.  3, 4, 18, 22, 24,258 

xl.  8 258 

xliii.  7 259 

Psalms. 

i 272 

iii 305 

iii.  5 323 

iv 305 

vii 305 

viii 305 

viii.  5,6 384 

xi 305 

xi.  4 317 

xiv.  1 323 

XV 305 

xvi.  8 323 

xviii 305 

xviii.  7-17 319 

xviii.  28-35 324 

xviii.  35 324 

xix.  1-6 305 

xxii.  9 323 

xxiii 323 

xxiii 383 

xxiii.  3 387 

xxiii.  3,5 324 

xxiv  305 

xxiv 310 

xxiv.8 383 

XXV.  8 323 

XXV.  11 325 

xxvii.  11 323 

xxix 305 

xxix. 9 319 

xxxi.3 323 

xxxii 305 

xxxiii.  6-8 60 

xUi.  1 390 

xiii 309 

xiv 321 

xlvi.  1 323 

xlviii 309 

li.  1,  2 323 

li.  11,  17 3-25 

li.l6 152 

Ivu.  1 323 

lix 314 

Ixix 314 

Ixxii 321 

bcxii 357 

Ixxii 391 

Ixxii.  12-17 326 

Ixxvi 322 

Ixxvii.  7-11 314 

bcxviii 322 

Ixxix.  9 325 

Ixxxi.  1-3 320 

bcxxv.  2 387 

Ixxxvi.  5 324 

Ixxxvi.  5,  15 387 

Ixxxviii.  5-8(2ref.)..198 

xci 309 

xci.4 326 


INDEX  OF  SCRIPTURE  REFERENCES       401 


xcv 320 

xcv.  1,2 320 

xcvi 319 

xcvi 320 

xcviii.  4-6 320 

c.  1 320 

ci 305 

cui.  1-5 324 

ciu.7 98 

ciii.  8 387 

ciii.  13 32G 

ciii.  13 383 

civ 319 

cv 98 

cv 322 

cv.  26 98 

cvi(2ref.) 98 

cvi 322 

cix 314 

ex.  4 391 

cxiv 322 

cxviii 322 

cxxii 322 

cxxv 322 

cxxvi 322 

cxxxv 98 

ex  XXV 322 

exxxvi 98 

exxxvi 309 

exxxvi 322 

cxxxvii 314 

cxxxvii.  8,  9 8 

cxxxvii.  9 177 

cxxxix 318 

cxxxix.  15,  16 323 

cxxxix.  21,  22 314 

cxlv.S,9 357 

cxlviii.  7-13 321 

cxlix.  3 320 

cl.3-5 320 

Proverbs. 

i.  1-6 270 

1.  22-28 274 

iv.  10-19 273 

vii.  14 271 

viii.  24-30 60 

XV.8 271 

XV.  13,15 276 

xvii.l 271 

xvii.  22 276 

xxi.3,27 271 

xxiii.  24-35 278 

xxiv.  30-34 279 

XXV.  6,7 285 

XXT.  19 276 

XXV.  21,  22 285 

xxvi.  17 277 

xxvii.  15,16 277 

xxvii.  23-27 278 

XXX.  21-23 278 

XXX.  24-28 278 

xxxi.  10-31 278 


Ecclesiasles. 

i.  1 288 

ii.  1-11 295 

ii.  22,  23 295 

iii.  19 290 

iv.  9-12 297 

vii.  16,  17 297 

xi.  9-xii.  7 300 

xii.  13,  14 300 

Song  of  Songs. 

i.  1 201 

i.  2-8 212 

i.  4 201 

i.  7 201 

i.  9 201 

i.  15 218 

i.  9-ii.  7 213 

ii.  7 211 

ii.  8-17 , 215 

ii.  16,  17 218 

iii.  1-5 216 

ui.  6-11 208 

iu.  6-11 217 

iv.  1-7 218 

iv.  4 209 

iv.  8-v.  1 208 

iv.  8-v.  1 219 

V.  15 209 

V.  2-vi.  3 221 

vi.  4-10 223 

vi.  11,  12 201 

vi.  11-vii.  9 224 

vi.  13 206 

vii.  10-viii.  7 224 

viu.  7 211 

viii.  5,  6,  7 201 

Isaiah. 

i.  10 338 

i.  10-17 146 

i.  11-15 152 

i.  16-18 315 

i.  18 386 

ii.  1-4 391 

ii.  2-4 358 

iii.  15 315 

V.  8-20 345 

vi 339 

vii.  10-17 336 

vii.  10-17 357 

viii.  20 344 

ix.  1-7 391 

ix.  2-7 357 

xi.  1-9 391 

xi.  6-9 358 

xl.  1-8 366 

xl.-lxvi 361 

xl.  25,  26 144 

xUi.  1-4 3(58 

xliv.  1,  2,  21 3G8 

xliv.  22 .•M4 

xliv.  22 3Sti 

xUv.  28 364 


xlv.  1 364 

xlix.  6-10 368 

Iii.  13-15 368 

liii 358 

liii 370 

liii 391 

liv 359 

liv.  5 383 

Iv.  0-9 275 

Ix S50 

Ix 391 

Ixi 391 

bciii.  11,  12 98 

bciv.  1,2 390 

Ixv.  3 119 

Jeremiah. 

i.  4-10 339 

ii.  11 144 

ui.  11 118 

iii.  14 383 

iii.  16 358 

iii.  22 344 

jv.  1 344 

vii.  17,  18,  31 119 

vii.  21-23 147 

viii.  2 119 

viii.  7,9 46 

xiv.  13 119 

xvi.  20 144 

xviii.  11 314 

xxvi.  10-16 124 

xxxi.  1-9,  31-34 358 

xxxiii.  18 147 

xxxviii 126 

xUv.23 344 

Ezekiel. 

i 144 

i 339 

ii 339 

xi.  17-20 358 

xviii.  23 3J4 

xxxiv.  23 391 

xl.-xlviii 358 

Daniel. 

iv.  27 355 

ix.  1 183 

Hosea. 

iv.  6 344 

xi.  1 334 

xiii.  14 391 

xiv.  4-8 3C3 

Amos. 

ii.  4 344 

ii.  6-8 345 

iii.  8 338 

V.  21,22 152 

V.  21-24 147 

V.25 147 


402       INDEX  OF  SCRIPTURE  REFERENCES 


Ohadiah. 
1-21 359 

Jonah. 

i.l7 198 

u.  1-9 198 

iv.  2 199 

iv.  9-11 200 

Micah. 

ii.  12 Mb 

iii.9-12 345 

vi.  6-8 152 

vi.  6-8 387 

vU.  19 386 

Nahuin. 

iii.  1 348 

Habakkuk. 

i.2 SiS 

ui.l7 348 

Zephaniah. 

i.5 119 

Haggai. 
i 145 

Zechariah. 

i.  1-4,  7flf 339 

vi.  12 391 

xiv.  11 391 

Malachi. 

iii.  7 344 

Matthew. 

i.5 177 

ii.  15 a35 

v.23,24 158 

V.25 267 


V.  34,35 276 

V.  43-18 286 

V.  44,  45 267 

viii.  4 54 

xii.  39,  40,41 194 

xbc.  7,  8 54 

xxi.  42 1 

xxu.  29 1 

xxiii.  17 24 

xxvi.  17,  19 98 

iivi.  54 1 

Mark. 

i.44  (2ref.) 54 

vii.  13 24 

X.3 54 

x.  5 54 

xii.  10    1 

xii.  19(2ref.) 54 

xii.  26(3ref.) 54 

XV.  28 1 

Luke. 

i.  1^ 28 

V.  14 &4 

xi.  29,  30,  31 194 

xiv.  8-10 285 

xvi.  29,31 54 

XX.  37-. 54 

xxiv.  27 1 

xxiv.27 54 

xxiv.  44 54 

John. 

i.  17 54 

V.39 1 

V.  46,  47 54 

vii.  19 54 

vii.  38 1 

viii.  5 54 

X.35 1 

xvi.  33 261 


AcU. 

vii 93 

viii.  32 1 

XV.  21  (2  ref.) 54 

xxviii.  23 54 

Romans. 

i.2 1 

iii.  10-18 386 

iv.  3 1 

viu.  38,  39 261 

X.5 54 

X.  6-9 383 

X.  19 54 

xii.  20 285 

XV.  4 1 

1  Corinthians. 

xiii.9,  12 14 

xiii.  12,  13 258 

2  Corinthians. 

Hi.  15 24 

iii.  15(2  ref.) 51 

Galatians. 
iv.30 1 

Colossians. 
ii.  21 3 

1  Timothy. 
V.18 1 

2  Timothy. 

iii.  16,17 26 

Hebrews. 

i.  1 390 

ix.22 145 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS 


Included  in  this  index  are  the  names  of  books  and  authors  cited. 


Abbott,  T.  K.,  International  Critical 

Commentary,  3  n. 
Adversary,   in  Job,  not  a  demon  of 

malice,  240. 
Agnosticism,   and  the   Book  of  Job, 

200. 
Ahab,  49. 

Ahasuerus.     See  JTeries. 
Ahijah  tl-.e  ShOonite,  Book  of,  36. 
Alford,  Grffk  Testament,  3  n. 
Amos,  347,  350,  3GT. 
Antliropomorphism,  317,  383,  of.  352. 
Apocrjpha.  20  n. 
Arnold,      Matthew,      Dover     Beach, 

quoted,  202. 
Atonement,  Day  of,  159. 
Austin,  John,  quoted,  107. 

Bacon,  B.  W.,  Genesis  of  Genesis, 53a., 
60  n.  Triple  Tradition  of  Ezodits, 
53  n. 

BakewelVs  Geology,  61  n. 

Banks,  E.  J.,  Jonah  in  Fact  and 
Fancy,  102  u. 

Baring-Gould,  S.,  Legends  of  the  Pa- 
triarclts  and  Prophets,  92  n. 

Bartlett,  E.  T.,  Scriptures  Hebrew 
and  Christian,  38  n. 

Bartlett,  S.  C,  Veracity  of  the  Hexa- 
ieueh,  53  n. 

Beeclier,  W.  J.,  in  Bihle  as  Literature, 
quoted,  270. 

Behrends,  A.  J.  F.,  Old  Testament 
Under  Fire,  22  n.     See  also,  53  n. 

Belief,  primitive  religious,  237. 

Bible,  significance  of  the  term,  1  ; 
older  attitude  toward,  2  If.,  372, 
379 ;  inconsistencies  in,  7  ff.  ;  new 
view  of,  8  If.,  374,  380;  Higher  and 
Lower  Criticism  of,  9  If.  ;  God  and, 
11  ;  human  and  divine  in,  13  ;  mate- 
rials used  by  wTitersof,  18;  traditions 
couceniing  writings  of,  21  ;  Christ 
and  traditions  concerning,  24  ;  his- 
tory in,  29  If.,  42  If.  ;  documents  in, 
34  tf.,  00  ft".,  lost  books  referred  to 
in,  36 ;  folk-lore  in,  38,  171,  378  If. ; 
epic  in,  60,  231  ;   myth  in,  63,  7G, 


378  ff . ;  legend  in,  74,  378  ff .  ;  laws 
in,  81  ff.,  378 ff.;  ritual  and  sacri- 
fices in,  129  n.  ;  fiction  in,  104  ff.  ; 
parables  in,  170  ff. ;  idyl  in,  177  ; 
historical  romance  in,  183 ff.;  satiri- 
cal romance  in,  192  ff. ;  drama  in, 
200,  378  tf . ;  symbolism  in,  208  ff.  ; 
Wisdom  Literature  of,  230,  263  ff.  ; 
proverbs  in,  203 ff.,  378 ff. ;  poetry 
(lyrics)  in,  305  ff.,  378  ff.  ;  orations 
in,  378  ff.  ;  old  and  new  views  of, 
contrasted,  372,  379,  cf.  iv.  2,  8,  11 ; 
omissions  in,  375. 

Bible,  literary  study  of,  methods  of, 
16  ;  results  of,  17  ff. ;  objection  to, 
21. 

Bible,  message  of,  372  ff.  ;  concerning 
God,  380  ft'. ;  concerning  man,  383  ff. ; 
concerning  relationship  of  God  and 
man,  384  tf .  ;  and  Christ,  392. 

Bible  Commentary,  la.,  34  n.,  37  n., 
1-17  n.,  183 n.,  201  n. 

Books,  lost,  referred  to  in  Old  Testa- 
ment, 36. 

Briggs,  C.  A.,  Higher  Criiicism  of  the 
Hexdteurh,  quoted,  130  n.  ;  Mes- 
sianic Prophecy,  359  n.  ;  Study  of 
the  Holy  Scripture,  quoted,  10  n., 
102  n. 

Browning,  R.,  Clive,  quoted,  204. 

Bruce,  A.  B.,  Apologetics,  102  n., 
129  n. 

Buckle,  History  of  Civilization,  43. 

Budde,  K.,  Religimi  of  Israel,  49  n. ; 
quoted,  102  n. 

Bushnell,  H.,  Nature  and  the  Super- 
natural, .393  n. 

Byron,  Childe  Harold,  quoted,  295. 

Calvin,  Commentary,  quoted,  266 n.; 

Institutes,  quoted,  ',M3n. 
Cambridge  Bible,  quoted,  3  n.,  7n., 

33  n. 
Captivity,  date  of.  30. 
Cavenio,  C,  A  Sarrow  Ax  in  Biblical 

Criticism,  192n. 
Centurv  Dictionary,  quoted,  10,  205, 

206,  229. 


404 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS 


Cheyne,  T.  K.,  on  authorship  of 
Psalms,  305. 

Christ,  and  traditions  concerning  the 
Bible,  24 ;  and  the  authorship  of 
the  Pentateuch,  54  n.  ;  attitude  to- 
ward sacrifice,  158 ;  and  the  story 
of  Jonah,  194 ;  combines  teaching  of 
empiricist,  legalist,  and  prophet, 
26G ;  his  counsel  compared  with 
Proverbs,  284 ;  his  teaching  con- 
trasted with  imprecatory  psalms, 
315  ;  relation  of  his  teaching  to  the 
Book  of  Psalms,  325  ff.  ;  relation  to 
the  prophecy  of  the  Great  Unknown, 
370 ;  and  the  message  of  Israel, 
302  ff.  ;  and  the  prophets,  395.  See 
also,  Jesus. 

Chronicles,  Book  of,  32. 

Code,  Hebrew,  growth  of,  129  ff. ;  le- 
galistic, 268.  See  also,  Law,  Levit- 
ical  Code,  and  Levitical  System. 

Commonwealth,  Hebrew,  departments 
in,  123 ;  free  speech  in,  125. 

Conant,  T.  J.,  Book  of  Genesis,  quoted, 
60  n. 

Cook,  F.  C,  Bible  Commentary,  34  n. 

Comill,  C.  H.,  The  Rise  of  the  People 
of  Israel,  quoted,  40.  See  also, 
49  n. 

Covenant,  Book  of  the,  oldest  book  in 
the  Bible,  17,  102  and  n.  ;  included 
in  Exodus,  36,  102 ;  character  and 
contents  of,  103  ii.  ;  simplicity  of, 
105  ;  primitive  religion  in,  137  ff. 

Covenant,  larger  Book  of  the,  in  Deu- 
teronomy, 36. 

Cox,  S.,  Ecclesiastes,  17  n.,  287  n. 

Crane,  F.,  Religion  of  To-morrow, 
12n. 

Creation,  accoimt  of,  in  Genesis,  59  ff. 

Crime,  treatment  by  Hebrews  of,  125. 

Criticism,  Higher,  meaning  of,  9  ff. 

Cyclopedia  Biblica,  120  n. 

Daland,  W.  C,  Song  of  Songs,  201  n. 

Daniel,  350. 

Darius,  letter  to,  and  edict  of,  37. 

David,  date  of,  29  ;  regarding  his  au- 
thorship of  psalms,  305  ff. 

David,  Chronicles  of,  36. 

Decalogue,  Mosaic  authorship  of, 
102  n.  ;  original  form  of,  106. 

Declaration  of  Independence,  quoted, 
108. 

Delitzsch,  on  Genesis,  25  n. ;  quoted, 
54  n. 

Deluge,  account  of,  in  Genesis,  66  ff.  ; 
two  accounts  of,  66  and  68  ;  Assyrian 
story  of,  72. 

De  Tocqueville,  Democracy  in  Amer- 
ica, 109  n. 

Deuterouomic  Code.  See  Code  ;  and 
Law. 

Deuteronomy,  date  of,  83 ;  authorship 


and  date  of,  119  ff. ;  character  of, 

121  ff. 

Development.     See  Growth. 

Divine  Armory,  4  and  n. 

Documents  in  Old  Testament,  34  ff. ; 
in  Pentateuch,  66  ff.,  70  ff. 

Drama  in  the  Bible,  206,  379  ;  not  di- 
dactic, 210  ;  philosophical,  231. 

Driver,  S.  R.,  on  Deuteronomy,  120  n., 
126  n.,  129  u.  ;  Introduction  to  the 
Literature  of  the  Old  Testament, 
53n.,  102  D.,  178 u. ;  quoted,  201  n. ; 
quoted,  208  n.  ;  quoted,  234  u., 
287  n. ;  on  authorship  of  psalms,  303. 

Ecclesiastes,  empirical,  268,  various 
interpretations  of,  287  n.  ;  character 
of  287  tf .  ;  authorship  of,  288  ;  a 
dramatic  monologue,  291  ;  teachings 
of,  for  the  present  day,  301  ff. 

Edersheim,  Life  and  Times  of  Jesus, 
24  n. 

Egypt  in  time  of  Moses,  94  ff. 

Eliot,  George,  Silas  Marner,  quoted, 
236. 

Elohist  narrative,  35. 

Emerson,  R.  W.,  Essays,  quoted,  204. 

Empiricist,  263. 

Encyclopedia  Britannica,  6n.,  53 n., 
90n.,  108  n.,  178n. 

Epic  in  the  Bible,  231.  See  also,  His- 
tory. 

Esther,  Story  of,  183  ff. 

Evolution.     See  Growth. 

Ewald,  History  of  Israel,  quoted, 
92  n. ,  102  n. ,  and  390  n.  Prophets  of 
the  Old  Testament,  quoted,  192  n., 
and  337 ;  on  the  authorship  of 
psalms,  305. 

Exodus,  date  of  the,  27  ;  witness  to, 
98  ff. 

Expositor'' s  Bible,  17  n. 

Ezekiel,  349,  350. 

Faber,  F.  W.,  quoted,  265. 

Fact,  truth  and,  41. 

FaU  of  man,  61  ff.,  13G,  353,  355. 

Farrar,  F.  W.,  The  Bible  and  its  Su- 
premacy, 38  n.,  quoted,  164  n. 

Fiction,  in  the  Bible,  164 tf.;  nature 
of,  165  ;  prejudice  against,  166  ;  pur- 
poses of,  167. 

Fisher,  6.  P.,  quoted,  123  n. 

Fitzgerald,  E.,  quoted,  296. 

Flood.     See  Deluge. 

Folk-lore  in  the  Bible,  38,  171  ff.,  378. 

Free  speech  in  Hebrew  Common- 
wealth, 125. 

Froude,  J.  A.,  Life  of  Erasmus,  43 ; 
Short  Studies  in  Great  Subjects, 
quoted,  232,  256  n.  ^ 

Genesis,  Book  of,  53  ff. ;  authorship 
of,  54  ff . ;  narratives  in,  59  ff. 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS 


405 


Genuog,  J.  F.,  Epic  of  the  Inner  Life, 
17  n.  ;  quoted,  229,  239  n.  ;  quoted, 
252  n.  and  256  n. 

Ginsburg,  C.  D.,  on  Proverbs,  287  n. 

Gladden,  W.,  Seven  Puzzling  Books, 
quoted,  231  n. 

God,  and  the  Bible,  11  ff.  ;  tranBcen- 
dence  and  immanence  of,  11,  12  ;  in 
Hebrew  history,  47  ;  conception  of, 
in  Psalms,  olG  ;  in  the  prophets,  350  ; 
recognizing  obligation,  352  ;  message 
of  Israel  concerning,  3!:0  ff.  ;  mes- 
sage of  Israel  concerning  relation- 
ship of  man  to,  384  If.  See  also,  An- 
tlirupoinorph  ism. 

Goodspeed,  G.  S.,  IsraeVs  Messianic 
Hope,  35'J  n. 

"  Great  Unknown,"  349,  351,  3G4,3G8. 

Green,  W.  H.,  in  Anli-Higher  Criti- 
cism, 70  n. ;  Higher  Criticism  of  the 
Pentateuch,  53  n. ;  quoted,  54  n. ; 
Vnity  of  the  Book  of  Genesis,  54  n. 

Grifiis,  W.  E.,  Lily  Among  Thorns, 
17  ;  201  n.  ;  218  n. 

Growth,  process  of  national  and  eccle- 
siastical, 87  S.  ;  of  Hebrew  Code, 
129  ff. 

Guyon,  Mme.,  Song  of  Songs,  quoted, 
201  n. 

Habakkuk.  34S,  350. 

Haggai,  319,351. 

Haley,  J.  W.,  Alleged  Discrepancies  of 
the  Bible,  8  n. ;  Book  of  Esther, 
quoted,  191  n. 

Hallam,  Constitutional  History,  153  n. 

Happiness,  significance  of,  237  ff. 

Harper,  H.  A.,  Bible  and  Modem  Dis- 
coveries, quoted,  99  n. 

Hastings,  Bible  Dictionary,  49  n. 

Hebrew  people,  message  of,  374  ff.  ; 
Christ  and  message  of,  392 ;  con- 
trasted with  pagan  nations,  381.  See 
also,  Bible. 

Henderson,  E.,  Minor  Prophets,  192  n. 

Henley,  W.  E.,  Life  and  Death, 
quoted,  261. 

Herodotus,  44 ;  quoted,  104. 

Hexateuch,  authorship  of,  .54  n. 

Hilprecht,  H.  V.,  Recent  Research  in 
Bible  Lands,  99  n. 

Historian,  frankness  of  Hebrew,  47 ; 
method  of  Oriental,  28. 

History,  three  classes  of,  42  ft.  ;  and 
legend,  78. 

History,  Hebrew,  beginnings  of,  27  ; 
the  two  narratives  of.  29  tf.  ;  date  of 
the  editing  of  books  of,  39  ;  charac- 
terized, 45  ;  principles  of,  52  ;  out- 
lines of,  lie  if. 

Homer,  historicity  of  the  Hiad  of,  44. 

Hftoker,  quoted.  111. 

Hosea,  347,  350,  359,  367. 


Houghton,  Mrs.  L.  8.,  Studies  in  the 
Old  Tes/ainent,  171  n. 

Humanity  of  Hebrew  laws,  125. 

Huxley,  T.  H.,  Science  and  Hebrew 
Tradition,  61  n. ;  Science  and  Edu- 
cation Essays,  quoted,  302. 

Iddo,  Vision  of,  36. 

Idyl,  in  the  Bible,  177. 

Imagination,  language  of,  as  compared 
with  symbolism,  208.  See  also,  Fic- 
tion . 

Ingersoll,  R.,  on  Hebrew  death  pen- 
alty, 125. 

Inspiration,  old  and  new  views  con- 
cerning, 5  ff.,  12,  372.     See  Bible. 

Isaiah,  protests  agamst  policy  of 
Ahaz,  335  ;  his  character  and  mes- 
sage, 317,  350,  368;  cf.  335,  336  n.; 
the  call  of,  365. 

Isaiah,  the  Second.  See  Great  Un- 
known. 

Israel.    See  Hebrew  People. 

Jahvist  narrative,  35. 

James,  William,  The  Will  to  Believe, 
quoted,  102  w. 

Jameson,  Mrs.,  History  of  Our  Lord 
in  Art,  61  n. 

Jasher,  Book  of,  7n.,  36. 

Jehovah,  subject  of  Hebrew  history, 
47.     See  also,  God. 

Jehu,  Book  of,  36. 

Jeremiah,  348,  350,  368. 

Jesus,  birthplace  of,  42.  See  also, 
Christ. 

Job,  Book  of,  characterized,  6  ;  inter- 
preted, 229  ff.  :  date  of,  233  ;  genius 
of  the  author  of,  236  ;  story  of, 
240  tt.  ;  and  agnosticism,  260  ;  con- 
clusion of,  262  ;  prophetic,  267. 

Joel,  350,  351. 

Jonah,  the  story  of,  192 ;  the  teaching 
of,  350,  351. 

Josephus,  Antiquities,  92 n.,  192  n. 

"Judges,"  Hebrew,  116. 

Kellogg,    S.   H.,  Book  of  Leviticus, 

quoted,  132  n. 
Kent,  C.  F.,  Wise  Men,  231  n.,  268 n. 
King,     Hebrew,    limited    power    of, 

124  ff. 
Kings,  Book  of.  32. 
Kitto,  Bibli-  J II us.,  50  n. 
Koran,   contrasted   with  Pentateuch, 

S3 ;  source  for  legends  concerning 

Moses,  93  n. 

Lane,  E.  W.,  Selections  from  the 
Knr-av,  93  n. 

Lange,  Commentary,  60  n. 

Law,  and  national  "life,  83  ff.  ;  ground 
for  authority  of,  107  ;  belief  concern- 
ing divine  origin  of,  81,  379. 


406 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS 


Law,  Hebrew,  elements  in  growth  of, 
91;  Ueuteronomic  code  of,  IIG  Vi  \ 
provisions  of ,  124  tf.  ;  canon  law,  129 
tf.  ;  spirit  of,  343. 

Laws  of  nature,  Biblical  writers  igno- 
rant of,  15. 

Lawgivers,  compared  with  prophets, 
342.     See  also,  2G3. 

Legalist,  2G3. 

Legend,  in  the  Bible,  G4  ff.,  378;  in 
other  literatures,  TO  ft'.  ;  compared 
with  myth,  75  tf.  See  also,  Folk- 
lore. 

Lenormant,  Beginnings  of  History, 
53  n.  ;  quoted,  58  n. 

Levitical  code,  130  If. ;  unlike  pagan 
code,  152  ft'. ;  support  voluntary, 
152  ;  services  voluntary,  154 ;  inex- 
pensive, 155 ;  not  to  pacify  God, 
158  ;  self-destructive,  IGO.  See  Rit- 
ual. 

Levitical  system,  date  of,  148. 

Leviticus,  date  of,  83. 

Lilly,  W.  S.,  Century  of  Revolution, 
109  n. 

Literature,  forma  of,  201  ff.  See  also, 
Bible. 

LjTic,  meaning  of  term,  307 ;  in  the 
Bible,  378. 

Mabie,  H.  W.,  Essays  on  Nature  and 

Culture,  quoted,  312. 
McGurdy,  J.  F.,   History,  Prophecy, 

and  the  Monuments,  99  n. 
McGiffert,  A.  C,  Apostolic  Age,  17  n. 
Magruder,  A.  B.,  John  Marshall,  85. 
Maine,  Sir  H.,  Ancient  Law,  quoted, 

88  n.,  108  n.    Popular  Government, 

109  n. 
Malachi,  349,  351. 
Man,   message  of   Israel  concerning, 

383  ff. ;    relationship  of  God    and, 

384  ff. 

Messiah.     See  Promise. 

Micah,  347,  350,  3G7. 

Miller,   H.,    Testimony  of  the  Rocks, 

56  n. 
Miller,  J.,  on  Proverbs,  270  n. 
Miracles.     See  Laws  of  Nature. 
Moore,  G.  F.,  on  Deuteronomy,  120 n. ; 

on  Judges,  quoted,  173  n.,  175  n. 
Moral  teachers,  three  classes  of,  263  ff. 
Morison,    Service    of    Man,    quoted, 

303,  384,  and  n. 
Morley,  J.,  Rousseau,  109  n. 
Moses,  reputed  author  of  Genesis,  54, 

81,  82  ;  life  and  character  of,  91  ff.  ; 

and  the  prophets,  342. 
Moulton,    R.    G.,    Modem   Reader's 

Bible,  17  n.  ;  quoted,  201  n.,  256  n., 

270  n.,  287  n. 
Munhall,   L.    W.,   Anti-Higher  Criti- 
cism, 53  n. 
Myth,  76  ff.,  378. 


Nahum,  348,  3.^». 

Narratives,  priestly  and  prophetic,  34. 
Nathan,  Samuel  and  Ool,  Acts  of,  36. 
Nation,  conceptiou  of,  in  Psalms,  36. 
Nature  in  the  Psalms,  318  tf. 
Newman,   J.   H.,   Apologia  pro   Vita 

Sua,    298;     Grammar    of    Assent, 

quoted,  352. 

Obadiah,  348,  350. 

Omar  Khaj-yam,  quoted,  296. 

Old  Testament.     See  Bible. 

Oort,  Dr.  H.,  Bible  for  Learners, 
quoted,  92  n. 

Orelli,  C.  von.  Old  Testament  Pro- 
phecies, ZTJiu.;  Prophecies  of  Jere- 
miah, 147  n. 

Owen,  J.,  Five  Great  Sceptical  Drar 
m,as,  230;  quoted,  258  n. 

Pagan  nations  compared  with  Hebrew 
people,  381.     See  also,  E;rijpt. 

Palmer,  E.  H.,  Desert  of  the  Exodus, 
quoted,  101  n. 

Parable  in  the  Bible,  170. 

Parable  of  the  Trees,  170. 

Paul,  teaching  of,  compared  with  Wis- 
dom Literature,  258  ;  compared  with 
Proverbs,  285.     See  also,  342. 

Pentateuch,  authorship  of.  54  n. 

Peters,  J.  P.,  Scriptures  Hebrew  and 
Christian,  38  n. 

Philosophy  and  myth,  78  ;  dramatic, 
23;  Hebrew,  363  tf . 

Plato,  quoted,  76,  77. 

Plumptre,  on  Ecclesiastes,  287  n., 
291  n. 

Plutarch,  3forals,  quoted,  320. 

Poetry,  essentials  of,  308.  See  also, 
Lyric. 

Poets  compared  with  prophets,  342  ff. 

Polychrome  Bible,  quoted,  7n.,  36  n., 
346  n. ;  translations  from,  335,  365, 
368. 

Priest.     See  Levitical  Code. 

Promise,  note  of,  in  Hebrew  litera- 
ture, 356,  389. 

Prophecy,  interpretation  of  Hebrew, 
328  ff.,  352  ff.  ;  Messianic,  356  ff. 

Prophet,   Hebrew,  view  of  the,  264 
contrasted    with    Wise   Men,   272 
function  of,  328  ;  interpretation  of, 
328  ff.  ;  as  foreteller.   331 ;  rabbini- 
cal conception  of  the  work  of,  3.34 
commissioned  by  Jehovah,  33S  ;  the 
times  of,  339  ;   the   personality   of, 
341  ;  compared  with  other  Hebrew 
teachers,  342  ff.  :  conception  of  God 
expressed  by,  350,  351. 

Proverbs,  Book  of,  empirical,  268 ; 
authorship  of,  269 ;  collection  of 
aphorisms,  270 ;  no  references  to 
Mosaic  or  Levitical  code  in,  271 ; 
no  theology  in,  271 ;  contrast  with 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS 


407 


prophetic  method,  272 ;  wisdom  as 
presented  in,  274 ;  aphorisms  in, 
27G;  odes,  riddles,  etc.,  in,  277  ;  no 
system  of  ethics  in,  279  ;  not  distinc- 
tive by  Hebraic,  282 ;  not  cynical, 
283 ;  compared  with  counsel  of 
Christ  and  Paul,  284  ff. 

Proverbs,  national,  characterized  and 
cited,  280  ff . 

Psalms,  Hebrew,  interpretation  of, 
305  if.  ;  autiiors  of,  305  If.  ;  the  five 
books  of,  30(j ;  religious  character 
of,  307  ff .  ;  expressions  of  experience, 
312  ff.  ;  Clirist  and  the  imprecatory, 
315;  conception  of  God  in,  31() ; 
conception  of  the  nation  in,  31811., 
321 ;  Christ  and  the,  325  tf. 

Punisliment,  divine,  237  ff. 

Pusey,  E.  B.,  Minor  Prophets,  192  n., 
quoted,  3G0. 

Rawlinson,  Historrj  of  Effijpt,  95,  99  n., 
104  n.,  105  n.,  141  n.,  153n. 

Raymond,  R.  W.,  Book  of  Job,  234  n. 

Religion,  in  otlier  than  Hebrew  na- 
tions, 139 ;  primitive,  237  ;  Hebrew 
conception  of,  352 ;  forelooking 
character  of  Hebrew,  353. 

Renan,  E.,  History  of  Israel,  29  n.  ; 
quoted,  92  n. ;  translation  in  Job, 
253  n. 

Revelation,  old  and  new  view  concern- 
ing, 12.     See  Inspiration. 

Rewards,  divine,  237  ff. 

Rliys,  E.,  Book  of  Ruth,  quoted,  182  n. 

Riehm,  Messianic  Prophecy,  3.59  n. 

Ritual,  Hebrew,  growth  of,  141.  See 
also,  Levitical  Code. 

Romance,  in  the  Bible,  historical, 
183  ;  satirical,  192. 

Ruskin,  Modern  Painters,  60  n. 

Ruth,  story  of,  177. 

Ruth,  Book  of,  date  of,  178  and  n. 

Sacrifices,  Hebrew  and  pagan  con- 
trasted, 102  ;  use  of,  387  ;  not  regu- 
lated by  Moses,  147. 

Samson,  story  of,  172  ff. 

Samuel  concerning  the  Kingdom,  Book 
of,  36. 

Satan.     See  Adversary. 

Sayings  of  the  Seers,  36. 

Scliaff',  P.,  General  Introduction  in 
Lange^s  Commentary  on  Job, 
quoted,  60  n. 

Schaff-Herzog,  Religious  Encyclope- 
dia, quoted,  6n. 

Scriptures,  use  of  terra,  1.  See  also, 
Bible. 

Shakespeare,  quoted,  291  n. 

Shemaiah  the  Prophet,  Book  of,  30. 

"  Shulamite,"  meaning  of,  20()n. 

Silliman,  Outline  of  Geological  Lec- 
tures, quoted,  61  n. 


Smith,  George,  Chaldean  Account  of 
Genesis,  53  n. 

Smith,  G.  A.,  Book  of  Isaiah,  17  n., 
336  n.,  346  n.;  Book  of  the  Twelve 
Prophets,  147  n. ;  quoted,  192  n., 
quoted,  3'J8,  346  n. 

Smith,  William,  Dictionary  of  the 
Biide,  l'J5n.,  192 n. 

Smith,  W.  R.,  Encyclopedia  Britan- 
nica,  178  n..  Old  Testament  in  Jew- 
ish Church,  102  n. 

Stowe,  C.  E.,  on  Jonah,  192  u. 

Solomon,  one  of  tlie  makers  of  pro- 
verbs, 2()9 ;  not  author  of  Ecclesi- 
astes,  288  ;  character  of,  289  tf . 

Solomon,  Acts  of,  36. 

Solomon,  Book  of,  36. 

Songs,  ancient,  36. 

Song  of  Songs,  conceptions  of,  201  n. ; 
dramatic  story  of,  206  ;  lesson  of, 
for  present  time,  227  ;  an  allegory, 
228. 

Spinoza,  on  Mosaic  authorship  of  Pen- 
tateuch, 54  n. 

Stanley,  A.  P.,  History  of  the  Jetvish 
Church,  quoted,  8  n.,  "l9  u.,  93  u., 
102  n.,  287  n. ;  quoted,  291  n. 

State.     See  Nation. 

Stevens,  G.  B.,  Theology  of  the  New 
Testament,  quoted,  25  n. 

Strabo,  quoted,  96. 

Suffering,  significance  of,  237  ff. 

"  Suffering  Servant,"  358,  368.  See 
also.  Great  Unknown. 

Symbolism,  language  of,  208,  218,  222. 

Symonds,  J.  A.,  Renaissance  in  Italy, 
39 ;  Greek  Poets,  308  n. 

Taine,  French  Revolution,  109  n. 

Tatian,  IHatesseron,  34. 

Taylor,  H.  O.,  Aiident  /dfa?j,  quoted, 

390  n. 
Temple,  rebuilding  of,  27.     See  also, 

Levitical  Code. 
Tennyson,  In  Memoriam,  quoted,  262. 
Thackeray,    The  Newcomes,   quoted, 

204. 
Theology,  Old  and  New  contrasted,  11, 

cf.  iv.     See  Bible  and  Inspiration. 
Townsend,    G.,    Old    Testament    Ar- 

ranqed.  quoted,  233 n. 
Toy,  C.  H.,  on  Proverbs,  279 n. 
Tradition,   in   Hebrew  literature,  38. 

See   also,    Folk-lore,    Legend,    and 

Myth. 
Traditions    regarding    authorship    of 

Biblical  books,  22  if. 
Tribes,  the  Lost,  363  n. 
Trumbull,  H.  C,  Light  on  the  Story  of 

Jonah,  192  n. 
Truth,  fact  and,  41. 
Tu^k,  R.,  Handbook  of  Biblical  Diffi- 
culties, 8  u.,  50  n. 


408 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS 


Wars  of  the  Lord,  Book  of  the,  36. 

WellhauBen,  on  the  Pentateuch,  53  n. ; 
History  of  Israel,  102  n.  and  ff. ; 
quoted,  116 1).,  quoted,  129  n. 

Wescott,  History  of  heligious  ThougM, 
77n.,78n. 

Westminster  Confession  of  Faith,  4 
and  n.  ;  quoted,  6  n.,  372. 

■Wilkinson,  Sir  J.  G.,  Ancient  Egyp- 
tians, 99  n. 

■WiBdom,  as  presented  in  Proverbs, 
274. 


Wisdom  Literature,  interpreted,  229, 
263  ;  conclusion  of,  258. 

Wise  Men,  constituting  a  school  of 
thought,  268 ;  compared  with  pro- 
phets, 342. 

Woods,  F.  H.,  Hope  of  Israel,  359  n. 

Xerxes,  character  of,  183. 

Zechariah,  349,  351. 
Zephaniah,  347,  350- 


Electrotyped  atid  printed  by  H.  O.  Houghtmi  &'  Co, 
Cambridge,  Mass.,  U.  S.  A. 


EVOLUTION  AND   RELIGION 

By  LYMAN  ABBOTT 


Though  each  of  the  following  volumes  is  independent  of  the 
others,  they  constitute  a  series  treating  various  aspects  of  Religion 
from  the  Evolutionary  point  of  view. 

THE   LIFE  AND    LITERATURE   OF   THE 
ANCIENT   HEBREWS 

Treats  the  Old  Testament  as  a  development  of  the  religious  insti- 
tutions and  literature  of  the  Hebrew  people. 

THE    LIFE    AND    LETTERS    OF    THE    APOSTLE 
PAUL 

Treats  the  Epistles  of  the  great  Apostle  as  the  record  of  his  spir- 
itual and  theological  development.     $1.50. 

THE    EVOLUTION    OF    CHRISTIANITY 

Traces  the  rise  and  progress  of  Christianity  from  its  primitive 
beginnings  to  its  present  maturity.     $1.25. 

CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS 

Treats  Christianity  as  a  social  system,  and  the  bearing  of  its  prin- 
ciples on  modern  social  problems.     $1.25. 

THE  THEOLOGY  OF  AN  EVOLUTIONIST 

Restates  Christian  theology  in  the  terms  of  an  evolutionary  phi- 
losophy.   $1.25. 


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